The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
Neil MacGregor visits Buchenwald, one of the earliest and largest concentration camps.
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
'I didn't stay in any children's home more than a week before I was on my toes again." In the week of the revelation that hundreds of children in care in Greater Manchester have gone missing this year, iPM speaks to one woman who spent her childhood running away from children's homes.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
As Open Country returns for a new series, Helen Mark ventures to The Isle of Sheppey where she becomes immersed both in the marsh swathed landscape of Elmley Nature Reserve and the infectious enthusiasm of the man who oversaw its creation.
Elmley is the only National Nature Reserve in the UK to be managed by a farming family and this unique status is down to the forward thinking of farmer Philip Merricks. Bumping along the ridge of the reserve's sea wall in his trusty 4x4, Philip introduces Helen to this historic Kent landscape, accompanied by the flight of lapwing and wigeon.
It's an area that is believed to have inspired Charles Dickens in the writing of 'Great Expectations' but as Helen discovers, it has also inspired an even bigger story of ground breaking conservation.
During the 1980's, farmers were paid compensation for turning land over to wildlife but Philip felt that this was unproductive for both farmers and wildlife and so wrote - what he calls - a fairly strong letter to the House of Commons Select Committee that had been tasked with finding a solution to what was becoming a rural battle ground. Remarkably, Philip's letter found its way into Parliament and his ideas were held up as a potential way forward.
Thirty years on Philip's enthusiasm and dedication to this one of a kind nature reserve is as strong as it ever and now - with the support and care of long standing farm manger Steve Gorden - Philip's daughter Georgina and son-in-law Gareth are moving forward with sharing this special place with visitors and encouraging that passion for farming and conservation that Philip began decades ago.
Charlotte Smith reports from a timber supplier and saw mill in Wiltshire as we talk about trees, our woodlands, and the forestry industry as a whole.
According to the Forestry Commission, the industry employs around 40,000 people, contributing more than £4 billion a year to the economy. Plus money generated from all the recreational visits to our woodlands. But we import around 95% of the wood we use to make furniture and build homes.
Charlotte meets Dougal Driver from the group Grown in Britain which is aiming to make the supply journey from 'tree to table' as open as the journey of our food from 'farm to fork', and encourage us all to source the wood we use from Britain.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Thought for the Day and Weather.
The comedian Shappi Khorsandi joins Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles to talk new shows, shyness and single motherhood.
Emmanuel Jal shares his story and some of his music. At just six years old he was recruited to fight in Sudan's civil war and lost more than five years to the conflict. Now the self-described 'peace soldier' says his only weapon is music.
Lutz Pfannenstiel is the only person to have played professional football on six continents. The goalkeeper tells us about his time at 25 different clubs in 13 countries, and how he once found a penguin in his gloves.
We have the 'Inheritance Tracks' of Dermot O'Leary who , eventually, picks Nat King Cole's 'Nature Boy' and Bruce Springsteen's 'Thunder Road'.
And the director of research for the TV programme QI, John Mitchinson, reveals how they decide what's interesting and what's not.
Plus we find out who really hangs out at the East London skatepark officially recognised this week as a site of national cultural significance.
The Frequency of Laughter is a six-part history of radio comedy, covering 1975-2005, presented by journalist and radio fan Grace Dent. In each episode she brings together two figures who were making significant radio comedy at the same time, and asks them about their experiences. This is a conversational history that focuses on the people who were there and the atmosphere within the BBC and the wider comedy world that allowed them to make great radio - or not.
This first edition features Graeme Garden and John Lloyd looking at radio comedy in the late 1970s. Graeme by this stage was an established figure, with his breakthrough show I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again morphing into I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, in addition to his work presenting Week Ending and as a panellist on shows such as A Rhyme In Time. John however had only joined the BBC Radio Comedy department in 1973, but he managed to make over 500 shows, co-creating The News Quiz, The Burkiss Way and Quote Unquote as he did so, before leaving for television. Grace asks them about the atmosphere within the Radio Comedy department and within the BBC, and how ideas actually go on air; they share their memories of former Heads of Light Entertainment Radio (as it was then called) Con Mahoney and David Hatch; and they talk about the lack of women in comedy at that time.
The Frequency of Laughter is presented by Grace Dent, a journalist for The Independent, and is a BBC Radio Comedy production.
Presenter ... Grace Dent
Guest ... Graeme Garden
Guest ... John Lloyd
Interviewee ... Simon Brett
Interviewee ... Yvonne Littlewood
Producers ... Ed Morrish & Alexandra Smith.
Steve Richards of the Independent investigates Labour discord in Scotland. He examines choices facing David Cameron in Europe. What's the political message of by-elections? And what was the public reaction to a peer who lost five stones in weight?
Reporters. Today: Alan Johnston on the richness of the past lying in the bones of the buildings in the historic heart of old Naples; Hugh Sykes in a minibus taxi in Tunis after an election which proved a victory for the secularists; Shaimaa Khalil in Lahore visits a palace of beauty which has been forced to face up to some ugly attitudes; Jon Donnison in Sydney talks to Muslims about the wave of Islamophobic attacks in cities across Australia; James Coomarasamy meets an unconventional mayor in Kentucky as the USA gears up for the mid-term elections.
NatWest bank says it's receiving hundreds of complaints every day from people who have been surprised to find loans brokers have taken money out of their bank accounts.The money is being taken by payday loan middlemen, although customers are often unaware they have authorised a payment and, in some cases fees, are being taken out by numerous companies. What action will be taken? Money Box investigates.
A Money Box listener complains that the balance on her Post Office gift card, valid until 2017, has reduced to zero after monthly inactivity fees were deducted. How has this happened?
Following the announcement that Lloyds Bank is going to close 200 branches, what might the future of high street banking look like? And what lessons can we learn from abroad? Hannah Moore reports.
Santander has revealed that it could offer a mortgage for life to some of its interest-only customers from next year. Would it be a good deal, and will other lenders follow suit? Paul Lewis talks to Ray Boulger from John Charcol mortgage brokers.
In June, Money Box featured the story of a listener who discovered a large cheque he'd posted to his bank had never arrived. The cheque had been stolen and credited to an account at a different bank altogether in his name. The bank, Barclays, froze the account but wouldn't return the thousands of pounds which had been withdrawn by the fraudster. This week Money Box reports that the Financial Ombudsman has ordered Barclays to pay back the money. So, how had the fraudster managed to open an account in the listener's name and are Barclays' security procedures robust enough?
A satirical review of the week's news, chaired by Sandi Toksvig, with Samira Ahmed, Susan Calman and Phill Jupitus, and regular panellist Jeremy Hardy.
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion from the Al Mahdi Mosque in Bradford with the former Home Secretary David Blunkett MP, Ratna Lachman Director of the civil liberties pressure group Just West Yorkshire, Daily Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson, and Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi.
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions? What we should do about the inquiry into historic sexual abuse of children. Two chairs have stood down. So who might do the job?
Are people's fears of being accused of racism hindering efforts to tackle grooming and abuse?
And - the government has decided not to support search and rescue operations for migrants in danger of drowning in the Mediterranean. Is that inhumane or a way to deter others from taking the risk?
Call: 03700 100 444 (Calls will cost no more than calls to 01 and 02 landlines. Lines open Sat
Dramatisation of Alasdair Gray's cult classic by Robin Brooks with Alasdair Gray.
First published in 1981, Lanark changed the face of Scottish literature for a generation and propelled the visual artist Alasdair Gray into the literary limelight.
It's a modern masterpiece that spans three worlds in four books, and tells the connected stories of Duncan Thaw - a student at Glasgow's Art School in the 1950s - and Lanark - a man who wakes to find himself in an unspecified period in the strange yet familiar place, Unthank.
Unthank is a city with no sun and no sense of time. It's an endless present, but there are ways to escape - people disappear mysteriously, others succumb to the strange diseases this peculiar form of hell generates. Lanark's escape will take him into another circle of hell where he'll hear the story of a life that was once his and where the life he now lives will change forever.
Starring Sandy Grierson, Melody Grove and Siobhan Redmond, with a guest appearance by Alasdair Gray.
Lena Dunham writes, directs and stars in the critically acclaimed series Girls. She discusses over-sharing, nudity, clothes and what years of therapy have taught her.
The Fleet Street legend Felicity Green talks about being part of the team in the 60s that oversaw the circulation of the Daily Mirror rise above five million.
As part of our historical sex abuse series we hear from a woman abused as a 14 year old in a care home, and discuss abuse in institutions with Natasha Finlayson from the Who Cares Trust and journalist Simon Hattenstone.
Should we all embrace the right to change our appearance with cosmetic surgery? Writer and psychotherapist Susie Orbach and beauty writer Sali Hughes give us their views.
From smartglasses to smartwatches, tech companies like Apple, Google and Samsung are investing big money in technology that you can wear. They're designed to keep us eternally connected, fully fit and super smart. But will they go mainstream or are they still the preserve of the gadget geeks? Evan Davis and guests discuss how fitness bands that measure how far you walk and how deeply you sleep could transform our healthcare. And hear about the intelligent fabric that's set to revolutionise the way US and British soldiers are kitted out.
Hayley Mills, Micky Flanagan, John Dagleish, Dickie Beau, Tuneyards, John Shuttleworth
Comedian Micky Flanagan talks about his new 4 part Sky 1 HD documentary series 'Micky Flanagan's Detour De France'. Clive meets British screen legend Hayley Mills, who stars in 'Madge', the first of 5 stand-alone films in BBC 1's 'Moving On' series. Clive's co-host Danny Wallace talks to performance artist Dickie Beau about his award winning directorial debut, 'Camera Lucida' at the Barbican; and actor John Dagleish ('Lark Rise to Candleford', 'Beaver Falls') stars as Ray Davies in the hit musical 'Sunny Afternoon' which depicts the rise to stardom of The Kinks. With music from tUnE-yArDs and John Shuttleworth
Film director Christopher Nolan's latest $160m blockbuster Interstellar opens next week. Mark Coles examines the more humble beginnings of his film making career at University College London and asks how he has achieved the enviable knack of delivering huge box office takings and keeping the critics happy.
Nightcrawler, Tis Pity She's a Whore, Richard Ford, Science Museum, Passing Bells
Nightcrawler is a movie about the ambulance-chasing camera crews who film at the site of traffic accidents, shootings etc and sell the footage to TV stations for their news bulletins. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, we see him begin his nightcrawling career, but will it make a good man turn bad?
'Tis Pity She's a Whore is being staged at London's Globe Theatre. Written in the early 1600s by John Ford, the plot includes incest which made it extremely controversial at the time. And it was so controversial in fact that it wasn't revived in London until 1923. How will 21st century London audiences respond?
Richard Ford's new book Let Me Be Frank With You is a collection of short stories all featuring the same main character: Frank Bascombe who has appeared in Ford's previous work. He's getting older and returns in all his imperfect glory, dealing with the mess of life.
The Queen recently opened the latest gallery at London's Science Museum. It's called The Information Age and it's the first permanent gallery dedicated to the history of information and communication technologies. How have they managed to bring Translatlantic cable-laying to life?
BBC1's latest World War 1 drama, Passing Bells follows the lives of two young recruits, one English, one German as they take part in and are affected by the conflict.
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Linda Grant, Emma Woolf and David Benedict. The producer is Oliver Jones.
Robin Ince looks at the enduring cliché of the Sad Clown. What is the relationship between stand-up comedy and mental health?
"A room filled with comedians standing in silence is rarity, especially after midnight during the Edinburgh Fringe, but this was a scene across the bars and venues when the news of Robin Williams' suicide broke. The death of a comedian resurrects the numerous images of the comedian surrounded by laughter they have created, yet miserable themselves.
"But how true is this image of the melancholy comedian? While the lives of Kenneth Williams, Tony Hancock and Spike Milligan are raked over with new books and documentaries appearing on a yearly basis, hundreds of comedians seemingly live and perform without facing anxiety that reaches clinical levels.
"Is the image of the sad comedian a comfort for an audience: "they made us all laugh and brought so much joy, but don't worry, they were wracked with existential agony for the rest of their lives"?
"Is pain required to create comedy, or would Spike Milligan have created as much, if not more, absurd and delightful comedy had he not been so frequently institutionalised?
"Do plays and documentaries on comedians focus so much on the bleak side of their existence that they create a false vision of perpetual despair?
"Is the act of being a comedian more of a cure than a burden? While others may have no valve to release their festering thoughts, the stand up can transform their ludicrousness or burdensome thoughts into jokes. They are able to laugh at, and with, themselves and even make money out of it too.
"Is comedy just like every other profession, or is there a need for some loss or pain in childhood to create the outsider who wishes to spend each night making themselves face one of the top three fears of human beings, public speaking?
"Romantic vision, bitter truth, debatable myth - can we really work out the formula that makes a comedian?
Episode one of a new adaptation of the classic western novel, upon which the famous film was based.
Texas, 1848. When Comanches attack the Edwards family's settlement on the Texas plains, they kidnap two girls - seventeen year-old Lucy and ten year-old Debbie. So Amos Edwards sets out on the dangerous mission to recover his two nieces, with the help of his nephew Mart and a rag-tag bunch of searchers. Their epic mission will last six years.
Alan Le May's 1954 novel is a timeless work of western fiction and a no-holds-barred portrait of the real American frontier. It explores the fear and the hatred that underpinned the lives of both the white settlers and the Native Americans. And what emerges is a violent account of a creeping genocide, as one culture inevitably triumphs over the other.
John Ford's 1956 film, based on the novel, starred John Wayne as Ethan Edwards (called Amos in the book and radio adaptation). Ford's film was named the Greatest Western Movie of all time by the American Film Institute in 2008.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.
Teaching your children a set of moral values to live their lives by is arguably one of the most important aspects of being a parent - and for some, one of the most neglected. In Japan that job could soon be handed to teachers and become part of the school curriculum. The Central Council for Education is making preparations to introduce moral education as an official school subject, on a par with traditional subjects like Japanese, mathematics and science. In a report the council says that since moral education plays an important role not only in helping children realise a better life for themselves but also in ensuring sustainable development of the Japanese state and society, so it should to taught more formally and the subject codified. The prospect of the state defining a set of approved values to be taught raises some obvious questions, but is it very far away from what we already accept? School websites often talk of their "moral ethos". The much quoted aphorism "give me the child until he is seven and I'll give you the man" is attributed to the Jesuits and why are church schools so popular if it's not for their faith based ethos? Moral philosophy is an enormously diverse subject, but why not use it to give children a broad set of tools and questions to ask, to help them make sense of a complex and contradictory world? If we try and make classrooms morally neutral zones are we just encouraging moral relativism? Our society is becoming increasingly secular and finding it hard to define a set of common values. As another disputed epigram puts it "When men stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing. They believe in anything." Could moral education fill the moral vacuum? Moral Maze - Presented by Michael Buerk
Witnesses: Adrian Bishop, Dr. Sandra Cooke, Professor Jesse Prinz and Dr. Ralph Levinson
Russell Davies chairs the sixth heat in the 2014 season of the most wide-ranging music quiz anywhere on radio, this week from the BBC's Maida Vale studios in London. Competitors from Twickenham, the Vale of Glamorgan and Brighton answer questions on everything from orchestral music and opera to film and stage musicals, folk and jazz, classic rock and sixty years of the pop charts.
As always, as well as demonstrating their musical general knowledge, they'll be asked to pick a specialist musical topic, from a list of which they've had no prior warning and no chance to prepare.
The winner will take another of the places in the series semi-finals towards the end of the year.
Within a year of his death, Dylan Thomas exploded into occupied West Germany with his popular radio play Under Milk Wood. By the end of the 80s, his poetry had firmly established his reputation on the other side of the Berlin Wall, in Communist East Germany. In this programme marking the Welsh poet's centenary, former Berlin correspondent Stephen Evans explores how Dylan Thomas became a cultural export for the British during the Cold War, and how his work helped sustain a generation of East Germans struggling with a totalitarian state trying to control what they read, wrote and thought.
SUNDAY 02 NOVEMBER 2014
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b04n23b4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
SUN 00:30 Hitch-Hiker's Guide to Europe (b01m6crl)
How to See Europe by the Skin of your Teeth
Read by Mark Little.
The Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe was the book most often stolen from British libraries in the 1970s. Mark Little reads from the young travellers' bible that nestled in every student rucksack forty years ago as they set off to explore Europe on £10 a week. Australian Ken Welsh was the hitcher who inspired thousands to follow "the infinite miles of tarmac and pot-holes which criss-cross the world, the magic ribbon which can lead to a thousand other worlds."
With a great deal of humour, some common sense and a spirit of recklessness lost to today's youngsters, Welsh's book covered everything from How To Hitch ("Providing a driver isn't obviously bombed out of his mind, my rule is to take any car that stops which has its bonnet pointed even vaguely in the direction I want to go...") to tips on How To Survive ("If you make the mistake of getting in with a fast driver who won't stop, make sounds which suggest you're about to throw up all over his upholstery...")
Re-reading it forty years on it's surprising what a different world it was then for the young traveller. There seemed to be more trust around (hitch-hikers are a rarity nowadays), and no real worries about roughing it far from home without the comfort of a mobile phone and by relying on the black markets, pawn shops or even blood banks when cash machines were simply not an option.
Produced by Neil Cargill
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04n23b6)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04n23b8)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
5.20am.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04n23bb)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b04n23bd)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b04n2fmc)
The bells of St Leonard's, Streatham.
SUN 05:45 Profile (b04mb15y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b04n23bj)
The latest national and international news.
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b04n2fmh)
Embracing The Classical
Luciano Pavarotti said it was "so important at a young age to be invited to embrace classical music and opera." Mark Tully and composer James MacMillan discuss the cross-cultural benefits of sharing classical traditions with new audiences and the power of music to unite.
The two first met during the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's tour of India earlier this year. Most of the music in this programme is taken from those concerts, as well as from the family concerts which accompanied them, where young audiences got their first introduction to Western classical traditions.
Mark and James compare the classical traditions of East and West and consider the exciting opportunities for music in a new global culture.
With music by Bizet, Schoenberg and Tchaikovsky and readings from Coleridge, Joyce Grenfell and Alice Herz-Sommer.
The readers are Jane Whittenshaw, David Westhead and Francis Cadder.
Produced by Frank Stirling
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:35 Living World (b04n2fmm)
Calling Eastern Wolves
Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario is home to the Eastern Wolf and a magnet for visitors to this wilderness national park. Canadian reporter Sian Griffiths meets David LeGros in the park and is taken on a wolf howl expedition to look for this shy and retreating animal. The park organises public wolf-howls to bring members of the public closer to and give richer encounters with this wonderful creature. The Living World has special access to the park and the rangers for this exclusive nature walk with a difference.
SUN 06:57 Weather (b04n23bm)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b04n23bq)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (b04n2fmq)
Church safeguarding; Charnel houses; Halal foodies
Following the shooting of a Jewish campaigner for the right to pray at Temple Mount or al-Haram al-Sharif, Matthew Kalman tells Edward why this site is so significant for Jewish and Muslim worshippers.
A report by Stockport MP Ann Coffey MP says child sexual exploitation is a 'real and ongoing problem' that has become a new social norm in some neighbourhoods of Greater Manchester. Kevin Bocquet asks what is our moral obligation to young people to help steer them away from such abuse.
The stereotypical halal restaurant in Britain is a curry house but that's changing with the emergence of a new consumer ... the 'halal foodie'. We meet some of the Muslim entrepreneurs feeding this appetite.
When Denise Inge and her husband, the Bishop of Worcester, moved into their new house in the grounds of Worcester Cathedral they discovered that they would be living above a charnel house. Denise confronted her fears about the 'neighbours' and wrote a book exploring charnel houses and what they represent.
The Christian website 'Ship of Fools' is inviting readers to vote for the 'Badvent' calendar of the year; the calendar that has strayed the furthest from the Christmas story. We reveal the top three.
Bishop Paul Butler, Chair of the Church of England's National Safeguarding Committee, responds to the recommendations of the recent abuse inquiry into the former Dean of Manchester, the late Robert Waddington. Commentator Ruth Gledhill responds to the Bishop's comments and analyses the Church's response to the report.
Producers:
David Cook
Carmel Lonergan
Editor:
Christine Morgan
Contributors:
Matthew Kalman
Bishop John Inge
Bishop Paul Butler
Steve Goddard
Ruth Gledhill.
SUN 07:55 Radio 4 Appeal (b04n2fmv)
Brainwave
Katy Ashworth presents The Radio 4 Appeal for Brainwave, a charity that helps children with disabilities and additional needs to achieve greater independence, through a range of educational and physical therapies.
Registered Charity No 1073238
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal, mark the back of the envelope ' Brainwave Centre'
- Cheques should be made payable to 'The Brainwave Centre Ltd'
SUN 07:57 Weather (b04n23bt)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b04n23bx)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b04n2fmz)
All Saints and Everyday Christians
The Rev. Cathy Gale leads a service live from Llanyrafon Methodist Church, Cwmbran, South Wales in which the Rev. Dr. Stephen Wigley reflects on the call of the Gospel to live lives of social holiness. Music by the Welsh Camerata, conducted by Andrew Wilson-Dickson. Organist: Thomas Breeze.
Producer: Karen Walker.
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (b04mhd5x)
Cures for Anxiety
Adam Gopnik identifies four different types of anxiety that afflict modern people and suggests ways to cure them. "The job of modern humanists is to do consciously what Conan Doyle did instinctively: to make the thrill of the ameliorative, the joy of small reliefs, of the case solved and mystery dissipated and the worry ended, for now - to make those things as sufficient to live by as they are good to experience."
Producer: Sheila Cook.
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b04hkxpc)
Resplendent Quetzal
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the resplendent quetzal of Guatamala. The image of resplendent quetzals are everywhere in Guatemala, but the source of their national emblem is now confined to the cloud forests of Central America. Its beauty has long entranced people, the male quetzal a shimmering emerald-green above and scarlet below. His outstanding features are the upper tail feathers which, longer than his entire body, extend into a train almost a metre in length, twisting like metallic ribbons as he flies through the tree canopy. Historically resplendent quetzals were considered sacred to the Mayans and Aztecs for their brilliant plumage, with the lavish crown of the Aztec ruler Moctezuma the Second, containing hundreds of individual quetzal tail - plumes.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b04n23c1)
The Sunday morning magazine programme with Britain's best newspaper review. Presented by Chris Mason.
As the care of 'looked after children' comes under the spotlight again this week, we look at the challenges facing social workers and legislators who deal with some of the most vulnerable in our society.
With the increased threat of power shortages this winter we get some practical advice on how to live 'off the grid'
Reviewing the papers: arts chief Sir Nicholas Kenyon, historian Professor Linda Colley and 'stand-up philosopher' Richard D North.
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (b04n2fn2)
Writer ..... Joanna Toye
Director ..... Julie Beckett
Editor ..... Sean O'Connor.
SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (b04n2fn5)
Wendy Dagworthy
Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the fashion designer, Professor Wendy Dagworthy.
During her time as Head of Fashion at both Central St Martins and The Royal College of Art she has taught students who've gone on to great success - Stella McCartney, Erdem and Antonio Berardi among them. Her skill lies partly in understanding the significance of a well cut pattern or a nicely turned seam, but also the warp and weft of a notoriously fickle industry.
At just 23, she was the toast of the catwalks with her own label selling round the world and worn by the likes of Bryan Ferry, Boy George and Mick Jagger. Dubbed 'the high priestess of fashion', her creative talent, however, wasn't recession-proof and her business went under in the late 80's. Given that reinvention is the lifeblood of fashion it seems she was tailor made for a new direction; collecting her O.B.E. in 2011 for services to the fashion industry, she wore a Perspex hat designed by a former pupil.
She says, "we want students to take risks - like we did when we were younger. There were no set rules, there was no one to follow - you just did it yourself."
Producer: Cathy Drysdale.
SUN 12:00 News Summary (b04n23c4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 The Museum of Curiosity (b04mc1hk)
Series 7
Episode 4
The Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and his curator Phill Jupitus.
With American comedy writer, stand-up and musician, Rich Hall, historian, author and TV presenter, Dr Anna Keay and leading neurosurgeon, Henry Marsh CBE.
The Museum's Steering Committee discusses:
* How the Wild West wasn't at all like we think it was
* How brain surgery isn't exactly rocket science
* How tourists were encouraged to chip off their own souvenirs from Stonehenge
* Why the key to understanding the difference between Americans and the British is on the front porch
* How British monarchs used to borrow their crown jewels
* How our brains disappear when they're not needed.
Researchers: James Harkin and Stevyn Colgan of QI.
Producers: Richard Turner and Dan Schreiber
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (b04nqv6k)
Tom Jaine
Sheila Dillon talks to the publisher, writer and restaurateur Tom Jaine about his life. From his early days at 'The Hole in the Wall' in Bath to custody of his beloved 'Prospect Books' ("every book a brick in the wall of knowledge") and beyond. With contributions from Rick Stein, Joyce Molyneux and Tim Hayward.
Producer: Sarah Langan
Photograph by Toby Coulson.
SUN 12:57 Weather (b04n23c7)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b04n2hv4)
Global news and analysis; presented by Mark Mardell.
SUN 13:30 America's Ballot Battles (b04mc1hs)
Rajini Vaidyanathan travels to North Carolina to investigate whether current bitter disputes over voting rights mean that the United States is involved in a crisis of democracy.
Over the last two decades the controversy over voting rights has become increasingly bitter and polarised along party lines. This process has intensified since 2013 when the US Supreme Court overturned important parts of the Voting Rights Act. North Carolina is one key location for these crucially important arguments. It has seen one of the furthest-reaching packages of voting reform of any state and is now in the midst of one of the closest election campaigns this year.
Rajini travels across the state and hears from those who argue that a concerted campaign is under way to deprive liberal-leaning groups of access to the electoral process. And she speaks to those responsible for the legislation who insist that they are trying to stop voter fraud and ensure the sanctity of the ballot.
Rajini looks at a number of states where political control has alternated over the last 20 years, and voting law with it, as Democrats pass laws which make it easier to vote - typically benefiting groups which vote for them - and Republicans often do the opposite. She asks what this is doing to American democracy.
Producer: Giles Edwards.
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b04mhd5j)
Cambridge
Eric Robson chairs the horticultural panel programme from Cambridge. Chris Beardshaw, Bob Flowerdew and Christine Walkden take questions from the audience.
Produced by Darby Dorras
Assistant Producer: Hannah Newton
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
This week's questions and answers:
Q. My Marjorie's Seedling Plum is normally prolific. This year, there was lots of fruit but it was tasteless. There was a large wound on the trunk, could this have anything to do with it?
A. The problem with a heavy crop is that the volume of fruit dilutes the sweetness. The tree may have contracted a bacterial disease through the wound - perhaps silver leaf is already affecting it. Next year, give it a big dose of manure and spray it with seaweed solution. Thinning may help. If it doesn't do any better, plant a 'Coe's Golden Drop' plum tree instead, it's even better!
Q. I have two Wisterias grown in the same place. One has thrived and one has not. What is going on? The Wisteria that is not doing well is a clear butter yellow, while the other looks healthy and is just beginning to get a bit of autumn colour.
A. This looks like a cultivation problem rather than a stock issue. This could mean the root is being compromised in some way; perhaps it has hit the foundations of the house? Minor changes in which the soil has been treated can affect the health of the plant. It's worth lifting the weak plant out and having a look at the soil profile and checking if there is any concrete or pipes down there (be careful not to rupture a gas or sewage pipe!) because this may be the source of the problem.
Q. How could I improve my Sweet Potato yield?
A. Don't grow them in the ground. Grow them in tubs or containers. Tie up the foliage into the sun; don't let it touch the ground.
Q. I planted crocuses under my apple tree beneath the turf. The crocuses grew up through the long grass. When I trimmed the grass with shears, there were bald patches. What should I have done differently?
A. Grass will get bald patches when it grows long, and Crocuses like free-draining conditions and lots of sunshine and so they will struggle in their current location. You could try growing Fritillaria Meleagris ('Snake's Head Fritillary') in the long grass instead. Try Camassias or just another variety of Crocus that thrives in damper, darker conditions like Colchicums ('Naked Ladies'). Mow the grass in the spring and summer and then let the grass grow for Autumn when the Colchicums will come through.
Q. The shoots and suckers of a Lilac grown in a hedge are taking over! What can I do?
A. This sounds like the Vulgaris species, it is very invasive and it will compromise other plants - so not a good choice for a hedge! Chris suggests letting one or two of the suckers to grow up to form a clear stem or multi stem plant that forms a canopy above the hedge rather than trying to incorporate it into the hedge. Bob disagrees, and thinks that Lilac can make a lovely hedge, just keep it under control with regular trimming.
Q. The plants in our small pond are getting overgrown, when is the best time to thin them out without disturbing the wildlife?
A. Bob says that there is no good time because the wildlife will be disturbed either way, but thinning in late November would minimise the disturbance. Take out as much water as possible before you thin and then pop it back in when you've finished because you don't want to put tap water in there.
Chris says that if you want to maximise the wildlife remaining in the pond after thinning, assemble a washing line above the pond and hang the removed plants on it so that any creepy-crawlies simply drip back into the pond. Leave the clearing to mid summer when the water is warmer and the larvae have moved on. You can clear the pond one section at a time.
Christine suggests you tell your neighbours what you're planning, because this can be dangerous. Eric suggests using a plastic hairbrush for removing the weeds.
Q. Could the panel suggest suitable rootstocks for apple trees that will be planted in less than ideal conditions?
A. Get a survey done of the site and then pay a visit to a rootstock expert like East Malling. Be warned that you won't be able to grow every apple variety well because some varieties need a very wet climate. Ensure that each plant has a custodian - someone to keep an eye on it and tend to its specific needs.
Q. What can I plant now that will look amazing within the next few weeks to wow a guest? I don't mind throwing money at it!
A. Autumn bulbs are the way to go. You can plant them in big swathes for a spectacular display.
SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (b04n2hv6)
Sunday Omnibus
Fi Glover introduces conversations between women from Belfast, Cardiff and Leeds, all revealing friendships, forged through travel or work, or living through the death of a 6 year old, in the Omnibus edition of the series that proves 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 learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess.
SUN 15:00 Classic Serial (b04n2k2f)
Alan Le May - The Searchers
Episode 2
By Alan Le May
Dramatised for radio by Adrian Bean
A new adaptation of the classic western novel, upon which the famous film was based. Episode two.
Texas, 1851. It's been three years since the Comanches attacked the Edwards family's settlement on the Texas plains, and kidnapped ten year-old Debbie. Now only Amos Edwards and his nephew Mart remain on the epic search. But Mart is concerned about what Amos might do if he finds Debbie.
Alan Le May's 1954 novel is a timeless work of western fiction and a no-holds-barred portrait of the real American frontier. It explores the fear and the hatred that underpinned the lives of both the white settlers and the Native Americans. And what emerges is a violent account of a creeping genocide, as one culture inevitably triumphs over the other.
John Ford's 1956 film, based on the novel, starred John Wayne as Ethan Edwards (called Amos in the book and radio adaptation). Ford's version of The Searchers was named the Greatest Western Movie of all time by the American Film Institute in 2008.
Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru/Wales Production.
SUN 16:00 Bookclub (b04n2k2h)
Blake Morrison - And When Did You Last See Your Father?
With James Naughtie. Poet Blake Morrison talks about his memoir of growing up in Yorkshire in the fifties and sixties, the son of two local GPs. It's an honest account of family life, father-son relationships and bereavement.
The book also movingly chronicles his father's death in 1991, and attempted to resolve some of the secrets in his father's life.
First published in 1993, And When Did You Last See Your Father? became a bestseller, was adapted into a film starring Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent, and inspired a whole genre of literary confessional memoirs. Recorded at the Ilkley Literature Festival, Yorkshire.
December's Bookclub choice : Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian (1969)
Presenter : James Naughtie
Interviewed Guest : Blake Morrison
Producer : Dymphna Flynn.
SUN 16:30 Night Fishing (b04n2k2k)
Cumbrian poet Tom Rawling fished for sea trout at night. His poems about fishing were admired by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes - but now, Tom is almost totally forgotten. Night fishing is a heightened experience captured in sound and with poems read by Tom, found on a cassette.
Tom Rawling was a driven man and his poems have a peculiar intensity, a strange slightly frightening quality that's vivid and almost obsessive. No one else has conveyed so piercingly the drama, the intensity and the sheer strangeness of fishing - above all, of night fishing for sea trout. This programme, with Grevel Lindop and Finlay Wilson, helps us to experience some of that.
Rawling was born in Ennerdale in the Lake District in 1916. His family had been farming on the shores of Ennerdale Water for at least three hundred years. He was the son of the village schoolmaster, attended his father's school, and was caned by him every day. Rawling eventually became a teacher himself - of children with special needs. He preferred that because it didn't tie him down to a syllabus.
He didn't begin writing poetry until he was sixty years old. Retired, the poems poured out of him. They were about Cumbria - about his family, his childhood memories of Ennerdale, and the hard labour entailed in making a living from the land. Also, they were about fishing. Above all, to fish for sea trout.
Produced by Matt Thompson
A Rockethouse production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 17:00 File on 4 (b04mctw3)
The Last Taboo?
As inquiries into child abuse in Rotherham continue, File on 4 investigates claims of a hidden problem of sexual abuse within Britain's Asian communities.
While the victims of recent grooming scandals have mostly been white girls, campaigners say Asian boys and girls have also been subjected to abuse over many years.
Male and female survivors tell Manveen Rana there's a powerful culture of denial stopping many speaking out and getting justice. They say communities too often close ranks and ostracise or threaten those who complain, while leaving perpetrators to carry on.
Reporter: Manveen Rana
Producer: Sally Chesworth
Assistant Producer: Yasminara Khan.
SUN 17:40 Profile (b04mb15y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b04n23cc)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 17:57 Weather (b04n23ch)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04n23ck)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b04n2ks8)
Sometimes the week just picks itself. The last seven days have gifted listeners a veritable smorgasbord of aural delights. From a German translation of Dylan Thomas' Under Milkwood, the jazz language of Harlem between the wars to the most beautiful, most poignant and most human audio diary from a doctor dealing with Ebola.
There's also Jarvis Cocker being spooky in Iceland, brilliant reminiscences about Joan Littlewood and a great story about a bear. Yes. A bear. Hardeep loves a bear...
SUN 19:00 The Archers (b04n2ksb)
Offering David a hand with the paddocks, Eddie begs a favour and borrows some old pallets to use as a small stage for his turkey pardoning event. Eddie's happy to do some extra milking as Ruth's back up north to see her Mum Heather tomorrow. He's also keen to know what'll happen to the herd if David and Ruth move.
There's inevitable outrage at Route B being chosen. The SAVE campaign will need to get back onto social media. Lynda and Jennifer plan to arrange a protest at the town hall.
Jazzer shows Johnny how to feed the sows and gets the lowdown on Johnny's course. Johnny's out bowling tomorrow. Jazzer quickly picks up that there's a girl Johnny's keen on - Melanie. Johnny's not so keen on an older lad - and possible rival - called Kenz. As Eddie and Johnny get talking about hedgehogs (and their depleting numbers), Jazzer teases Johnny mercilessly.
David and Ruth talk things through with the kids. Pip and Josh seem fine about the idea of moving to a new farm. With that, David decides to call Rodway's to get Brookfield put up for sale.
SUN 19:15 The Write Stuff (b04n2ksk)
Series 17
Henry Fielding
Radio 4's literary panel show, hosted by James Walton, with team captains Sebastian Faulks and John Walsh and guests Jane Thynne and John O'Farrell. The author of the week - Henry Fielding.
Produced by Alexandra Smith.
SUN 19:45 Under My Bed (b04n2ksm)
Walk On By
Three writers fictionally explore the memories and stories of what characters might have stashed away in the dark, under their beds with some shocking revelations.
Many children believe there is a monster or something strange and dark and menacing lurking under their bed, just waiting to leap out when the lights are off and everyone is asleep. As we grow up it's a place for hiding things, for playing or exploring. Later still it's where we stash the overspill of student or adult lives, where we keep boxes of photos or the detritus of life that holds memories we can't bring ourselves to throw away. It's where we hide the Christmas presents, stash diaries, love letters and wedding albums. As we get older still perhaps it's the place where slippers, half read books or life savings nestle. And it's a place which evolves and changes with us throughout life.
Reader ..... Jason Watkins
Writer ..... David Park
Producer ..... Gemma McMullan.
SUN 20:00 Feedback (b04mpr5y)
Russell Brand was invited onto Radio 4's Start the Week to join a discussion on Revolution. But was he out of place on the panel of experts? Some listeners saw it as little more than blatant promotion of his latest book. The programme's editor, Rebecca Stratford, explains the thinking behind her decision.
Surround sound has long been enhancing mainstream cinema, and it's now made an appearance in BBC radio drama. And you don't need a 5.1 surround sound speaker set to hear it. So how does it work? All is revealed in a behind the scenes laboratory at BBC Research and Development, where the authentic sounds of World War 1 are brought to life.
John Humphrys recently declared on Feedback that UKIP is Britain's fourth political party - leading listeners to wonder if the Green Party ranked anywhere in his poll. With the 2015 General Election around the corner, how does the BBC determine which parties appear in its political debates? Breaking down the stats and figures behind the selection process is the BBC's Chief Political Advisor, Ric Bailey.
And how did two Radio 4 programmes get repeated minutes after their original broadcast?
Produced by Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 20:30 Last Word (b04mpr5w)
Jack Bruce, Gough Whitlam, Efua Dorkenoo, James Dunlop
Matthew Bannister on
Jack Bruce, the bassist, singer and principal songwriter of the sixties supergroup Cream. With Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker, he changed the course of rock music. Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music pays tribute.
Efua Dorkenoo, the Ghana born nurse, who campaigned for thirty years to end the practice of female genital mutilation.
Gough Whitlam the Australian Labour Prime Minister who was spectacularly sacked by the Governor General after only three years in office.
And Glasgow firefighter James Dunlop who was awarded the George Medal for his courage in tackling the Cheapside Street fire which killed 14 of his colleagues and 5 members of the city's salvage corps.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (b04mb15f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b04n2fmv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 today]
SUN 21:30 Analysis (b04mc1hv)
Inside Welfare Reform
Economist Jonathan Portes assesses how well the government has implemented its controversial welfare reforms. The government describes the programme as "the most ambitious, fundamental and radical changes to the welfare system since it began".
When the Coalition came to power in 2010, welfare - not including pensions - was costing the country nearly £100 billion a year. Iain Duncan Smith, the secretary of state for work and pensions, was given the task of making work pay and - in so doing - taking millions of people off benefit and saving the country billions.
Influential figures from parliament, the civil service and one of Iain Duncan Smith's closest advisers offer revealing accounts of what's been happening during those past 4 years.
Economist Jonathan Portes asks whether these changes are a vital strategy to stem a welfare system spiralling out of control or - as some argue - nothing short of a fiasco, which has caused genuine hardship?
Producer: Adele Armstrong.
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b04n23cp)
Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.
SUN 22:45 What the Papers Say (b04n2l8b)
Nosheen Iqbal of The Guardian analyses how the newspapers are covering the biggest stories.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (b04mgxtq)
Mike Leigh, Korean classic cinema, Jurassic Park sound effects
British director Mike Leigh discusses his latest film Mr Turner. With a career spanning over 40 years, he tells The Film Programme why he has wanted to make a film about the artist for over 20 years, and why actor Timothy Spall was the only man for the job. In the run up to the London Korean Film Festival, Film critic Anton Bitel discusses Korean 1960 classic 'The Housemaid'. Seen as utterly shocking by cinema goers at the time, it has been rediscovered and its restoration has attracted a new audience. Francine Stock presents a new series running throughout The Film Programme for the next two months- The Story Of The Sound Effect. To mark the BFI's season Days Of Fear And Wonder, the programme will hear from the people who created some of the most famous sound effects in the history of science fiction cinema. This week, Gary Rydstrom on Jurassic Park. Continuing The Cinema Memory series, Girlhood director Celine Sciamma recalls the first film to make her cry - E.T.
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b04n2fmh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 03 NOVEMBER 2014
MON 00:00 Midnight News (b04n23f1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (b04md56c)
Post-Dictatorship Art in Argentina; Young Jazz Musicians in London
Post dictatorship art in Argentina and beyond. Laurie Taylor talks to Vikki Bell, Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths College, about the role of the arts in a society's journey to democracy. Whilst scholars of transitional justice tend to focus on the courts and the streets; this study asks how culture enables a country marked by state oppression to both mark, as well as transcend, its past. They're joined by Professor Sanja Bahun from the Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex. Also, Charles Umney, Senior Lecturer in Human Resources and Organisational Behaviour at the University Of Greenwich, talks about the 'creative labour' of jazz musicians in London.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b04n2fmc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04n23f3)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04n23f5)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04n23f7)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (b04n23f9)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04ng5qy)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Leslie Griffiths.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (b04n304f)
Invasive species, New lab, Plantain
Around ten non-native species turn up in the UK every year. Recent arrivals include quagga mussels and killer shrimps. Not all are damaging, but some non-native species are invasive and disrupt existing eco-systems. Farming Today starts a week-long look at how much of a threat they are - both to native plants and animals, and to biodiversity worldwide.
A laboratory which will hold some of the world's most contagious livestock viruses has opened in the UK. The National Virology Centre at the Pirbright Institute in Surrey has cost £125 million, and will be a centre for research into diseases such as avian flu and African swine fever. Farming Today gets a tour of the lab, just before it went into secure lock-down last week.
And we meet the Welsh farmer experimenting with plantain as an alternative food source for his lambs.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Emma Campbell.
MON 05:56 Weather (b04n23fc)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04mj32d)
Toco Tucan
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Chris Packham presents the South American toco tucan. Few of us are lucky enough to have seen or heard a Toco Toucan at home in its South American strongholds but its image will be familiar to drinkers of a certain age. Its pied plumage and sky-blue eye-rings are striking enough but it is the toco toucan's huge black-tipped orange bill that makes the bird instantly recognisable. Despite appearances this cumbersome-looking banana-shaped bill is really quite light. Under the colourful plates which cover the bill a matrix of horny fibres and air-pockets combines strength with lightness a formula which has caught the attention of light aircraft manufacturers . The bird's massive bills were prominent in advertisements for a well-known brand of Irish stout beer in the 1930s and 40s. In various poses, often with a pint pot perched precariously on its bill, toucan's, extolled the virtues of beer-drinking.
MON 06:00 Today (b04n304h)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (b04n304k)
The Language of Money
'Money talks' in a special edition of Start the Week recorded in front of an audience at Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead. Anne McElvoy explores the language and morality of money, from the super-rich to zombie debt, with the writers John Lanchester and Naomi Alderman, plus the journalists Martin Wolf and John Kampfner.
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
MON 09:45 Germany: Memories of a Nation (b04k6ttw)
The Germans Expelled
Neil MacGregor focuses on a small hand-cart to tell the story of the forced movement of more than 12 million Germans, who fled or were forced out of Central and Eastern Europe after 1945.
For many, the only way of transporting their possessions was a hand-cart, as they walked to parts of Germany they had never seen before.
And Neil also reflects on the 1949 Berlin staging of Brecht's play Mother Courage, examining a model of the production's set. Fiona Shaw, who has played the title role, discusses how the image of Mother Courage pulling her cart, amidst the devastation of war, became one of the most memorable stage pictures of the 20th century.
Producer Paul Kobrak.
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04n304m)
Odaline de la Martinez, Working Conditions for Au Pairs, and Jessica Chastain
Au pairs and their host families - new research from Birkbeck, University of London indicates that there's currently little protection in terms of working hours, pay and living conditions. The Cuban born UK based conductor Odaline de la Martinez talks about turning 65 and why she's premiering part two of her Afro-Cuban Slavery Opera Trilogy at the London Festival of American Music. Giana Ferguson and her daughter Clovisse has written a book, Gubbeen: the story of a working farm and its food. She joins Jane to talk about life on the farm in West Cork, working with her husband and two children. Hollywood actor Jessica Chastain talks about her new role in the big budget movie about space and time travel, Interstellar. For seventy years the Colonial Nursing Association sent thousands of hard working, adventurous nurses to work in the colonies across the British Empire. These nurses' experiences are highlighted in Passages of Empire, the 15 minute drama on radio 4 this week. Jane talks to two former colonial nurses and Anne Marie Rafferty, historian and Professor Nursing Policy at King's College, London.
MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b04n304p)
Writing the Century: Passages from Empire
Episode 1
The latest in the Writing the Century series, based on real life letters and diaries of extraordinary ordinary people.
For 70 years The Colonial Nursing Association sent hundreds of hard working, adventurous nurses to work all over the then British colonies. Writer Vanessa Rosenthal discovered some of their striking correspondence housed in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, during her time as writer in residence at Kings College, London. By the 1920s these intrepid women, nearly all of them with lives marked by loss after the First World War and the need to provide for themselves, were marching across the globe.
Ina Crafer, in her early 40's, struggled to make ends meet in Africa; Gwladys Hughes, in her late 30's, loved the challenges and hardship that nursing in an extreme Northern climate offered. Through their own words, we discover the daily minutiae, trials, tribulations and great rewards of nursing life abroad for this generation of women who were ahead of their time.
The radio plays are based on research funded by the Wellcome Trust at the Centre for the Humanities and Health in collaboration with Prof. Anne Marie Rafferty, Drs Jessica Howell, Rosemary Wall and Anna Snaith, King's College, London.
Episode 1
Ina has to come to terms with being posted in Mauritius, while Gwladys relishes the snowy challenges of her Newfoundland posting.
Director.....Polly Thomas
Sound designer.....Nigel Lewis
PC.....Willa King
Executive Producer.....Alison Hindell
Writer.....Vanessa Rosenthal
A BBC Cymru/Wales production or BBC Radio 4.
MON 11:00 The Grace of Jeff Buckley (b048hxpk)
Since his desperately early death in May 1997, there's been an inevitable mythologising about the life and music of Jeff Buckley.
Perhaps it's not surprising that in the posthumous rush to acknowledge his genius, memories have been clouded or, retrospectively, given a silver lining.
The quiet, uncertain foundations of his reputation were laid on a solo tour of Europe three years earlier, in March 1994 - and, in particular, during one day. On the 18th March, Buckley was scheduled for a photo shoot (with Kevin Westenberg), an appearance on BBC GLR and his first proper London concert, at a folk club called Bunjies.
Those who were there speak for the first time about the man and his music: Buckley's American manager Dave Lory, record company owner Steve Abbott, booking agent Emma Banks and photographer Kevin Westenberg share intimate memories that have so far not featured in the Buckley biography.
Also including rare archive: the BBC GLR radio session that has not been heard since that live broadcast in 1994 - including an astonishing version of 'Grace' - and, exclusively, a private interview that Buckley recorded on the eve of this tour but decided not to release.
Together, these glimpses offer a portrait of a young man whose voice and musicianship, as well as his irresistible charisma and the trauma of his early death, touched millions.
Producer: Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in July 2014.
MON 11:30 Kerry's List (b04n307k)
Series 2
Holiday
The Godlimans are off on holiday, and Kerry is stressed. In the last episode of the series, Kerry's list is dominated by all things vacation-orientated - including flatten stomach, deep vein thrombosis, learn Greek, shave legs and understand quantum physics.
Kerry also has to cope with another stultifying call with her morose father Martin who doesn't exactly celebrate the idea of her family going on holiday! Kerry prepares for her break by having a pedicure and manicure, but her nail technician definitely needs to get out more!
Pandemonium ensues as Kerry and husband Ben realise they have mislaid their passports and Kerry struggles trying to find the right suncream. She has another stress-filled call with best friend Hazel (Bridget Christie) and also shows off her packing skills.
We all know that going on holiday is stressful, but Kerry shows that, with her all important list, the experience is much more organised and calm - ish!
Produced by Paul Russell
An Open Mike production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:00 News Summary (b04n23ff)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 Witness (b04nhmf6)
Leipzig - Before the Wall Came Down
Massive demonstrations in the East German city of Leipzig in October 1989 triggered the fall of the Berlin Wall. Martin Jankowski was one of the young opposition protestors on the streets.
MON 12:15 You and Yours (b04n307p)
Council houses; Lone justice; Online subscriptions
Are we on the brink of a new council home boom.
Subscription by stealth - how to avoid signing up for more than you bargained for online.
How did the Big Six come to dominate the UK energy market?
Lone Justice - representing yourself in court.
Advertisers admit there aren't enough black, Asian people or people from ethnic minorities featured in their work.
MON 12:57 Weather (b04n23fh)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 13:00 World at One (b04n307r)
Analysis of current affairs reports, presented by Martha Kearney.
MON 13:45 Voices of the First World War (b04n307t)
Morale
There are now no living veterans of WW1, but it is still possible to go back to the First World War through the memories of those who actually took part. In a unique partnership between the Imperial War Museums and the BBC, two sound archive collections featuring survivors of the war are brought together for the first time. The Imperial War Museums' holdings include a major oral history resource of remarkable recordings made in the 1980s and early 1990s with the remaining survivors of the conflict. The interviews were done not for immediate use or broadcast, but because it was felt that this diminishing resource that could never be replenished, would be of unique value in the future. Speakers recall in great detail as though it were yesterday the conditions of the trenches, the brutality of the battlefield, the experience of seeing their first casualty and hearing their first shell, their daily and nightly routines as soldiers, pilots or navy members of all ranks, and their psychological state in the face of so much trauma. This series will broadcast many of these recordings for the first time. Among the BBC's extensive collection of archive featuring first hand recollections of the conflict a century ago, are the interviews recorded for the 1964 TV series 'The Great War', which vividly bring to life the human experience of those fighting and living through the war.
Dan Snow narrates this new oral history, which will be broadcast in short seasons throughout the commemorative period.
Programme 6 - Morale
Dan Snow looks at the morale of men serving in the First World War in 1914, from the relationship between officers and their troops, to their activities during rest periods, and steeling themselves for combat.
MON 14:00 The Archers (b04n2ksb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Drama (b01gvlfm)
Helen Macdonald - Through the Wire
Helen Macdonald's drama documentary tells the story of the British POWs who survived incarceration in German camps in World War Two by studying the birds that flew freely all around them. While some of their fellow prisoners plotted escape and dug tunnels, men like John Buxton, Peter Conder and George Waterston looked hard at the birds that flew overhead on migration and also at those that chose to fly through the camp wire, like redstarts and goldfinches, and breed amongst the prisoners and their guards. With days, even years, to spare but without any binoculars or other equipment, the birdmen turned watching into their way of getting through the war. They enlisted the help of other prisoners and even some of their guards (bird study was a major field in Germany) and they recorded their observations using scraps of old cigarette packets to write on. After the war their studies were often published and became, and in cases remain, key texts for the bird species they were writing about. Several of the birdmen went on also to become major figures in ornithology and bird conservation. Using scientific papers, monographs, letters and diary entries Helen Macdonald, poet, falconer and scholar of wartime ornithology, has created a drama about men sitting still and straining their eyes looking at the sky. The music is by Olivier Messiaen, the French composer and bird lover, who was also incarcerated in another nearby prison camp by the Germans, where he listened to the birds he heard and inspired by them and the accidental collection of instruments and players there were in his camp, wrote his modernist masterpiece, The Quartet for the End of Time.
Producer: Tim Dee.
MON 15:00 Counterpoint (b04n31cm)
Series 28
Episode 7
(7/13)
The seventh heat in the 2014 series is chaired by Russell Davies, with three contestants from the North of England facing questions on music of all varieties. This week's contenders come from Alfreton, Preston and Wigan.
As always, they'll have to demonstrate the breadth of their musical knowledge, and choose a musical special subject on which to answer individual questions - from a list of which they've had no prior warning. There are plenty of musical extracts and clues to identify, including both familiar pieces and new surprises.
The winner will take another of the places in the series semi-finals in a few weeks' time.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (b04nqv6k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 The Battle for the Art of Detroit (b04n31cp)
Detroit, once a symbol of American industrial might, has famously filed for bankruptcy, becoming the biggest US city to go broke. This was a city that in its heyday, during the first half of the 20th century, had seen the birth of the American car industry boost its fortunes and give it a nickname - Motor City.
During the second half of the 20th city, it was music, specifically Motown, that carried Detroit's name around the world. But even as the hits were pouring out of the Motown label's headquarters, Detroit was a city in trouble. The car industry that had brought it wealth was now contracting and thousands of manufacturing jobs were disappearing.
Despite many years of financial difficulty, which resulted in 40% of the city's streetlights not working, tens of thousands of abandoned buildings, and a population that declined 25 percent in the last decade alone, Detroit still had one remaining jewel in its crown - the Detroit Institute of Arts. Its collection was world famous - the first Van Gogh to be owned by an American arts museum, dazzling Matisses, Rembrandts, a distinguished selection of German Expressionist paintings, along with African Art, Native American Art, and art from Asia and the Islamic world.
But should a city owing 18 billon dollars, much of it attributed to unfunded pension obligations, sell its prestigious art collection? This question has been asked within and outside the city. And it's a question that resonates worldwide as financially strapped arts institutions struggle to pay their bills. Presenter Alvin Hall visits Detroit to find out if, in the words of a famous advert for the D.I.A "You Gotta Have Art", even when you're broke.
Producer: Ekene Akalawu.
MON 16:30 The Digital Human (b04n31cr)
Series 6
Nostalgia
We live in a world where the nostalgia for the past now permeates our present.
With online trends like 'Throw Back Thursdays', apps like Timehop and platforms which gives you the tools to make your digital image look like it was taken with an analogue camera, the internet has never seemed so backwards-facing.
In this week's episode of The Digital Human, Aleks Krotoski visits imagined worlds and eras long past to explore whether the web is a nostalgia machine.
We speak with Professor of Svetlana Boym to trace the origins of the word back to homesick Swiss mercenaries in the 17th century, visit a water park in New Jersey which was reborn through the collective power of online nostalgia and take tea with a vintage enthusiast, who divides his time between working as an air host in a high-flying company, with living in the 1940s.
Producer: Caitlin Smith.
MON 17:00 PM (b04n31ct)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04n23fk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 The Museum of Curiosity (b04n31cw)
Series 7
Episode 5
The Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd welcomes his latest curator Phill Jupitus.
Television and radio presenter, comedy writer and former barrister Clive Anderson, award-winning musician, composer, arranger, conductor and producer Anne Dudley and world famous animator Richard Williams.
The Museum's Steering Committee discusses:
* How the Old Bailey isn't very old
* How the Wool Sack was found to be a sack of horsehair
* How Disney provided the perfect workstation for animators
Researchers: James Harkin and Stevyn Colgan of QI.
Producers: Richard Turner and Dan Schreiber
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.
MON 19:00 The Archers (b04n31cy)
Eddie reminds Ed what a big day the shoot is for Will, who's feeling the pressure. Ed understands but has his own worries. He's tired of scrabbling around for cash. Emma's doing better with her and Fallon's business organising parties. Proud Ed wearily accepts that that's good news.
Johnny helps Tony in the polytunnel, then gets ready for his bowling meet-up. Tony helps Johnny clean himself up after he cuts himself shaving. No need to worry, says Tony. Girls like a battle scar. Johnny heads out and manages to score a date with Melanie.
David breaks it to Eddie that he's selling up. David has a scare when Jill mentions she keeps changing her mind. But she's only talking about what to do with her bees - take them with her or get rid of them? Eddie reassures Jill that someone will take them off her hands.
Will phones Ed late at night to ask him to step in at the shoot tomorrow as a stop - a more responsible role. Ed quibbles over the fee, but Will stresses how important this is for him. It's his first shoot under the new set-up. Is Ed going to back him up or not?
MON 19:15 Front Row (b04n31d0)
Interstellar, Nick Hornby, John Harle, Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes
Novelist Lionel Shriver reviews Christopher Nolan's three-hour film Interstellar, starring Matthew McConaughey. Nick Hornby talks to John Wilson about his new novel Funny Girl, set around a fictional 1960's sitcom. Saxophonist John Harle assesses the musical instrument designed by Adolphe Sax who was born 200 years ago. And Michael Carlson discusses Bob Dylan The Basement Tapes Raw: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11, containing 138 tracks, released today.
Producer Jerome Weatherald.
MON 19:45 Germany: Memories of a Nation (b04k6ttw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 today]
MON 20:00 The Map That Made Manhattan (b04fy2bq)
Over two hundred years since the beginning of its construction, this feature explores the New York grid system as real and imagined - architectural matrix, psychic space and site of continuing cultural-political argument.
The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 divided the island of Manhattan into an orthogonal grid of intersecting avenues running North-South and cross-streets running East-West, from river to river. Attacked for being nothing more than "a grid of money making", it was in fact a great democratic leveller. And if it fostered what de Tocqueville viewed as relentless monotony, its coordinates also enabled drivers and pedestrians to figure out where they stood, physically and metaphorically.
The debate continues. Urban critic Tony Hiss ('In Motion: The Experience of Travel') has written about the grid's primal orderliness: "I still think it distances us from our natural surroundings and it has given us a spurious and diminished mental geometry".
Condemned for dehumanizing and mechanising the city's inhabitants (Henry James, writing in the grid-free enclave of Greenwich Village, called it "a primal topographic curse") others saw it as a modern, rational system in step with the ethos of a young republic.
And New Yorkers themselves are of course a great source of wit and comment on the grid system.
Filled with the sounds and atmosphere of New York, and hearing entirely from its residents - from city architects and historians to taxi drivers and subway engineers - this programme considers the geometry of the grid as the brilliant intersection of architectural vision with psychic and cultural space, and as footprint for the awesome city skyline.
Producer: Simon Hollis
A Brook Lapping Production
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.
MON 20:30 Analysis (b04n31d2)
Just Culture
Margaret Heffernan explores why big organisations so often make big mistakes - and asks if the cure could be the aviation industry's model of a "just culture".
In the past ten years, there have been a string of organizational failures - from BP to the banks, from the Catholic Church to Rotherham. In each instance, hundreds, even thousands of people could see what was going on but acted as though they were blind. Silence ensured the problems continued and allowed them to grow.
The conditions that create the phenomenon called "wilful blindness" are pervasive across institutions, both public and private. Wherever there have been cases of organisational failure you typically find individuals who are over-stretched, distracted and exhausted. They cannot see because they cannot think.
Businesswoman and writer Margaret Heffernan argues that the solution is a "just culture"; which means organizations that encourage people to speak up early and often when things go adrift, without fear of being silenced.
Contributors:
Alexis Jay, author of the report into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham
Ben Alcott, Head of Safety at the Civil Aviation Authority
Helene Donnelly, Cultural Ambassador, Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent NHS Trust
Bill McAleer, a former safety auditor for General Motors
Philip Zimbardo, the psychologist behind the famous Stanford Prison experiment
Producer: Gemma Newby.
MON 21:00 Shared Planet (b04mcmnj)
Albatross and Fishing
Albatrosses are giant flying seabirds that inhabit the southern oceans. Many species have been studied intensively over decades on their breeding grounds in the sub-Antarctic and the Pacific. Clever studies involving satellite tracking and simple observations from ships have shown they can disperse and forage across the whole of the southern ocean. Monitoring of their populations has shown a marked decline in their numbers since the 1980's so much so all albatross species are now threatened. A key cause of albatross decline was found quickly after the decline in populations was noticed; long-line fishing hooks baited with squid and floating on the surface after being deployed was an easy meal for an ocean scavenger and often their last. Shared Planet visits this story many years after it broke to report a cautious success on the high level conservation measures that were put in place involving biologists and the fishing industry. On this trajectory, it seems, we might be able to share the ocean with albatrosses and catch fish.
MON 21:30 Start the Week (b04n304k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 21:58 Weather (b04n23fm)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b04n31d4)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04n31d6)
The Restoration of Otto Laird
Episode 6
A story of memory and place, old age and architecture.
"Otto had felt surprisingly nervous on the plane across from Geneva; not from any fear of flying, but a fear of what he was flying to. [...] Throughout the short flight he experienced a strange inner turbulence. He had a queasy sensation that he was re-establishing a connection with the past; flying backwards into his own memories. He would no longer be experiencing them from a distance, but in the city where they had once been real."
Architect Otto Laird has been living a semi-reclusive life with his second wife in Switzerland. But he is forced to re-engage with the wider world when he learns that his landmark building Marlowe House - a 1960s tower block in South London - has been marked for demolition.
Episode Six
With the cameras rolling, Otto listens as some residents talk about their lives in Marlowe House.
Nigel Packer lives in London. He has been a music reviewer for BBC News Online and Ceefax, a reporting officer at the International Committee of the Red Cross and a contributor to various magazines and newspapers. The Restoration Of Otto Laird is his first novel.
Reader: Allan Corduner
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 23:00 Wireless Nights (b04n31d8)
Series 3
Bright Nights
In the second part of his nocturnal Icelandic adventure, Jarvis goes on a journey through the long, light summer night. He meets Megas, the island's best known poet and rock and roll legend, who warns of wandering demons as he embarks on an overnight road trip.
Along the way he stops to hear ghost stories in Reykjavik's oldest cemetery, meets an elf seer in a lava field and is led to a sacred waterfall, behind which he makes a wish. But will he make it back before the hour of the wolf?
Producer Neil McCarthy.
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (b04n31db)
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.
TUESDAY 04 NOVEMBER 2014
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b04n23gk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
TUE 00:30 Germany: Memories of a Nation (b04k6ttw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04n23gp)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04n23gv)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04n23h1)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b04n23h5)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04ng5zg)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Leslie Griffiths.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b04n31vr)
Dairy and Cheese Industry; Non-stun Slaughter; American Crayfish
A leading dairy analyst warns of a continuing crisis in the industry as another processor drops the price it pays farmers for milk. Ian Potter says the glut in liquid milk is now putting pressure on cheese processors, some of whom will have bought the milk six months ago at higher prices. We also hear from the MP at the head of a parliamentary group looking at the practice of non-stun slaughter of livestock, ahead of a debate this morning.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04mj5kt)
New Zealand Bellbird
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Chris Packham presents the New Zealand bellbird. In 1770, during Captain James Cook's first voyage to New Zealand, an extraordinary dawn chorus caught the attention of his crew "like small bells exquisitely tuned": these were New Zealand bellbirds. New Zealand bellbirds are olive green birds with curved black bills and brush-like tongues which they use to probe flowers for nectar. Like other honeyeaters , they play an important role in pollinating flowers and also eat the fruits which result from those pollinations and so help to spread the seeds. The well camouflaged bellbird is more often heard before it is seen. They sing throughout the day, but at their best at dawn or dusk when pairs duet or several birds chorus together. Their song can vary remarkably, and it is possible hear different 'accents' in different parts of New Zealand, even across relatively short distances.
TUE 06:00 Today (b04n31vt)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (b04n31vw)
Dame Sally Davies on public health
Jim al-Khalili talks to Professor Dame Sally Davies about being a champion for patients and a champion for women.
As Chief Medical Officer, the first woman to fill the post, she guides government decisions on pressing health issues such as antimicrobial resistance, mental health and, most recently, Ebola.
Having spent many years working as a haematologist, focussing on sickle cell disease, Dame Sally now works tirelessly to put scientific evidence at the heart of Government decisions that affect out health. And it's this quest for evidence that has inspired much of her career.
As Director General for Research and Development at the Department of Health, she saw the opportunity to overhaul health research in the National Health Service, focussing on the needs of patients. It was a hugely controversial idea which others had tried to implement, and failed. But she stuck to her guns and the National Institute for Health Research, which she created, is now the envy of the world.
Named one of the most powerful women in the country, Dame Sally also has a powerful voice abroad. Through her work at the World Health Organisation, she's brought the world's attention to global threats like antimicrobial resistance.
Producer: Beth Eastwood.
TUE 09:30 One to One (b04n31vy)
Nihal Talks Dogs
Broadcaster and DJ Nihal owns a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, a breed that is often perceived as a 'dangerous dog', though they are legal.
In the first of his two part series for One to One, Nihal meets Jordan who does have two dogs that are banned under the '1991 Dangerous Dogs Act'.
Jordan's mixed pit-bull types were taken away from him by the police as they were deemed to be 'dangerous'. He tells Nihal why he fought to keep them and how he now wants to change people's attitude towards all bull breeds.
Producer: Perminder Khatkar.
TUE 09:45 Germany: Memories of a Nation (b04k6tv0)
Out of the Rubble
Neil MacGregor talks to a Trümmerfrau, a woman who cleared rubble from the streets of Berlin in 1945, and focuses on a sculpture by Max Lachnit, a portrait of a Trümmerfrau made from hundreds of pieces of rubble.
Neil also examines the role the launch of the Deutsch Mark played in the re-building of Germany.
Producer Paul Kobrak.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04n31w0)
Debbie Harry and Chris Stein; women bosses; Equal Pay Day; Dilma Rouseff; Criminalising paying for sex
Debbie Harry and Chris Stein met forty years ago in New York and formed the band Blondie. They talk about their music, relationship and a new exhibition 'Me, Blondie and the Advent of Punk'. The Equal Pay Act was passed in 1970, but women's earnings continue to be significantly lower than men's. What's the reason this inequality persists and what should be done about it? On Tuesday an amendment to the Modern Slavery Bill, making it a crime to pay for sex, will be debated in the House of Commons. What impact could a change in the law have for those working in the sex industry? And, as Dilma Rousseff enters her second term as the President of Brazil, we look at what she's achieved and why opinion about her is so divided.
TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b04n31w2)
Writing the Century: Passages from Empire
Episode 2
The latest in the Writing the Century series, based on real life letters and diaries of extraordinary ordinary people.
For 70 years The Colonial Nursing Association sent hundreds of hard working, adventurous nurses to work all over the then British colonies. Writer Vanessa Rosenthal discovered some of their correspondence housed in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, during her time as writer in residence at Kings College, London. By the 1920s these intrepid women, nearly all of whose lives were marked by loss after the First World War and the need to provide for themselves, were marching across the globe.
Ina Crafer, in her early 40's, struggled to make ends meet in Africa; Gwladys Hughes, in her late 30's, loved the challenges that nursing in an extreme Northern climate offered. Through their own words, we discover the daily minutiae, trials, tribulations and great rewards of nursing life abroad for this generation of women who were ahead of their time.
The radio plays are based on research funded by the Wellcome Trust at the Centre for the Humanities and Health in collaboration with Prof. Anne Marie Rafferty, Drs Jessica Howell, Rosemary Wall and Anna Snaith, King's College, London.
Episode 2
Ina's friendship with the Mauritian housekeeper helps her to cope with her new posting , while Gwladys is shocked by the hardships her patients in Newfoundland endure.
Director ..... Polly Thomas
Sound designer ..... Nigel Lewis
Executive Producer ..... Alison Hindell
Writer ..... Vanessa Rosenthal
A BBC Cymru/Wales production or BBC Radio 4.
TUE 11:00 Shared Planet (b04n31w4)
Beavers in Business
The European beaver was hunted to extinction for its fur, meat and the aromatic secretions from sacs near its anal glands. Now it is coming back throughout Europe , either naturally or by being introduced, as here in the UK. Wherever they settle they transform the landscape by building dams and channels and create a landscape of pools and watercourses that hold back flood water, pollution and silt from entering the main rivers. In these times of severe weather events and flooding beavers are doing for free what landscape engineers would do at great cost. Viewing nature in terms of the services it provides, or evaluating nature in financial terms, is a growing movement in conservation. Nature can be seen on balance sheets and hopefully respected for all that it gives us for free. But there is concern that monetising nature leaves it open to the ruthless world of finance and trading and diverts attention away from the real aims of conservation. Monty Don grabs this thorny issue and chairs a debate between the writer and conservationist Tony Juniper and the economist Clive Spash. There are no easy answers but plenty of food for thought.
TUE 11:30 The Yes, No, Don't Know Show (b04nw3g8)
The brief was simple enough: five minute 'created by anyone for everyone' around the theme of independence.
But then came the logistics. And don't forget the politics. And the fun, nerves and unexpected sadness.
In its most ambitious production to date, over twenty four hours, the National Theatre of Scotland staged 'The Great Yes, No, Don't Know Show', a series of 5 minute theatre pieces on the theme of independence. It was watched online by more than 26000 people in thirty countries.
The production was curated by two Scottish playwrights from opposite sides of the referendum divide. David Greig who voted for independence in September and David MacLennan who wanted Scotland to stay part of the UK. Sadly he died ten days before the production.
Edi followed the making of this epic production, capturing its highs and lows and bitter sweet success.
TUE 12:00 News Summary (b04n23hh)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 Witness (b04nhmdk)
The Death of Che Guevara
In October 1967 the Marxist revolutionary was captured and killed in Bolivia. Felix Rodriguez was a Cuban exile working for the CIA who helped track him down. He interrogated Che just before he was shot.
TUE 12:15 You and Yours (b04n31xh)
Call You and Yours: Have You Benefited or Lost Out from EU Freedom to Travel?
The Prime Minister's attempts to restrict migration within the EU are reported to have been criticised by the German Chancellor. What's your experience been of the freedom to move around the EU?
Are you a business that couldn't survive without foreign workers? Are you somebody with a holiday home abroad or who has travelled easily for work to other European countries? Or are you somebody who's struggled to find work because a migrant worker was willing to work for less?
Email us with your stories youandyours@bbc.co.uk.
TUE 12:57 Weather (b04n23hk)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 13:00 World at One (b04n31xk)
Analysis of current affairs reports, presented by Martha Kearney.
TUE 13:45 Voices of the First World War (b04n32t9)
Ypres
There are now no living veterans of WW1, but it is still possible to go back to the First World War through the memories of those who actually took part. In a unique partnership between the Imperial War Museums and the BBC, two sound archive collections featuring survivors of the war are brought together for the first time. The Imperial War Museums' holdings include a major oral history resource of remarkable recordings made in the 1980s and early 1990s with the remaining survivors of the conflict. The interviews were done not for immediate use or broadcast, but because it was felt that this diminishing resource that could never be replenished, would be of unique value in the future. Speakers recall in great detail as though it were yesterday the conditions of the trenches, the brutality of the battlefield, the experience of seeing their first casualty and hearing their first shell, their daily and nightly routines as soldiers, pilots or navy members of all ranks, and their psychological state in the face of so much trauma. This series will broadcast many of these recordings for the first time. Among the BBC's extensive collection of archive featuring first hand recollections of the conflict a century ago, are the interviews recorded for the 1964 TV series 'The Great War', which vividly bring to life the human experience of those fighting and living through the war.
Dan Snow narrates this new oral history, which will be broadcast in short seasons throughout the commemorative period.
Programme 7 - Ypres
A picture of the intense fighting around the medieval town of Ypres in October and November 1914 built from the recollections of soldiers in archive drawn from the Imperial War Museum and the BBC.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (b04n31cy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Tommies (b03thc5k)
4 November 1914
by Michael Chaplin.
Series created by Jonathan Ruffle.
Meticulously based on unit war diaries and eye-witness accounts, each episode of Tommies traces one real day at war and behind the battlefront, exactly 100 years ago.
And through it all, we follow the fortunes of Mickey Bliss and his fellow signallers, from the Lahore Division of the British Indian Army. They are the cogs in an immense machine, one which connects situations across the whole theatre of the war, over four long years.
Indira Varma, Pippa Nixon and Patrick Kennedy star in this story, as Dr Celestine de Tullio returns from France to find that things are amiss with army medicals, while her husband Robert gets embroiled in the realities of financing a war.
Producers: David Hunter, Jonquil Panting, Jonathan Ruffle
Director: Jonquil Panting.
TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (b04n32tc)
Series 6
Nothing
Josie Long presents a programme about nothing.
A decades long murder mystery about the death of a man who never existed, the story of losing someone you never knew, and a first time treasure hunter finds something against the odds but ends up with nothing.
Series producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (b04n3380)
Arctic Future
The melting sea ice of the Arctic creates opportunities and threats for the people and wildlife of the region. This week the leaders of the polar nations are in Iceland to map out a future for the region at the Arctic Circle conference.
Will oil and gas production ravage the north or bring jobs and money to impoverished local people? Will Russian designs on Arctic riches provoke conflict or link the region to the global economy? And what's in it for Britain? Can our expertise in polar science help us influence the development of the region?
Tom is joined by Jane Francis of the British Antarctic Survey, Malte Humpert of the Arctic Institute, Alexander Shestakov from the World Wildlife Fund and Duncan Depledge of the Royal United Services Institute.
Producer: Alasdair Cross.
TUE 16:00 Law in Action (b04n3382)
Government on Trial
The Appeal Court has allowed a Libyan man to proceed with legal action against the British government, despite the government's claim that the case could damage relations with the United States. Joshua Rozenberg discusses the implications.
Later this month, the Supreme Court will rule whether the former Attorney General Dominic Grieve was right to block the release of letters written by the Prince of Wales to government ministers.
We examine the case with the journalist who made the original Freedom of Information request, Rob Evans of the Guardian, and the former Solicitor General, Sir Edward Garnier.
Also in the programme: Grieve's successor as Attorney General, Jeremy Wright, gives Law in Action his first broadcast interview since taking on the job.
And: the CSI Effect. Are juries now so blinded by science that they will convict on unreliable forensic evidence? We hear about the increased danger of miscarriages of justice in British criminal courts.
Presenter: Joshua Rozenberg
Producers: Keith Moore and Tim Mansel
Editor: Richard Knight.
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (b04n3384)
Eliza Manningham-Buller and Elif Shafak
Former M15 head Eliza Manningham-Buller and Turkish author and commentator Elif Shafak discuss favourite books with presenter Harriett Gilbert. Choices of a good read are: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's latest, Americanah; Michael Chabon's ripping yarn set a thousand years ago, Gentlemen of the Road; and The War Between the Tates, Alison Lurie's dissection of a marriage breakdown. Memories of university in the sixties and feelings about home are among the topics being discussed.
TUE 17:00 PM (b04n3386)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04n23hm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Mark Watson Talks a Bit About Life (b04n3388)
Series 1
Longevity
Mark Watson attempts to answer the big questions and make sense of life.
Written and performed by Mark Watson, Tim Key and Tom Basden as they tackle academic and abstract topics.
This time Mark looks at "Longevity". It's the big one - dear old Mr Death. Can we beat him? Since time began, his win/lose record has been around 190 billion/1 (that's accepting Jesus rose from the dead, and maybe allowing a few draws for people who've been cryonically frozen, etc). Much of the world seems to be obsessed with the task of trying to defy age' and deny the inevitable - but is there actually a case for not wanting to live too long, because the world starts to become too confusing and your place in it less and less secure?
Mark dishes up some examples of ways this is already happening to him. Key and Basden attempt to persuade Mark the true glory of life is in enjoying it, not drawing it out endlessly. Everyone asks the question - who really wants to live forever?
Producer: Lianne Coop
An Impatient production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in November 2014.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (b04n6018)
Justin Elliot and wife Miranda arrive for the shoot, where Adam supports Brian by acting as a driver. Jennifer has provided hot snacks and alcoholic warmers. Adam's waiting to get a decision from Charlie about Home Farm's contract work. They are meeting on Friday and Adam's under instruction not to mention it to Justin today.
Ed tries to get anxious Will to relax. Meanwhile, Justin's trying to schmooze a guy called Stephen Henderson (aka Henders). It seems in Damara Capital and BL's interests that Henders enjoys himself today. Henders seems lost, though, so Martyn Gibson goes off to find him. Adam's annoyed when Justin slips him £20 as chauffeur. He feels it's a deliberate act to keep Adam in his place.
Things initially seem to be going well, to Will's relief. But as the day progresses, Justin becomes disappointed at the lack of action and criticises Will. Brian smoothes things over with Henders by offering him the pick of the game cart.
When Will complains at Ed after a fiasco with the beating, Ed is also critical. Will later apologizes for snapping. Will and Ed feel they're in the same boat. Things need to improve or it won't be a good Christmas.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (b04n338d)
Babylon; Wendy Cope; border crossing theatre; North Korean art
Babylon, a new series from the creators of Peep Show, returns for a series after appearing on Channel 4 as a pilot. Brit Marling and James Nesbitt star in this fly on the wall satire about the police. Documentary film maker Roger Graef reviews.
Poet Wendy Cope discusses her new book, Life, Love and the Archers, a collection of her prose which includes reviews, essays and recollections from her childhood.
We get a rare glimpse of artistic life in North Korea at an exhibition inside the country's secluded London embassy.
And Samira takes part in a new immersive theatre experience from the National Theatre of Wales by attempting to cross the border from England.
TUE 19:45 Germany: Memories of a Nation (b04k6tv0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 today]
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (b04n338g)
Private Equity: Winners and Losers
Recent high-profile collapses of high street names such as Comet, Phones4U and other companies have left thousands of people out of work and have cost the taxpayer millions in statutory redundancy payments and unpaid taxes. This week File on 4 goes behind the headlines to examine the role of the companies' private equity backers. Were these failed businesses which were bound to have to close? Or might they have survived for longer under different ownership? Fran Abrams investigates.
Producer: Emma Forde.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (b04n338j)
Access to Work, White Cane Rage
Access to Work, is the Government's discretionary grant, which can provide support to people who have a disability and are in employment. It can help with the provision of travel, support workers and technology. The Work and Pensions Parliamentary select committee has just completed an investigation into the operation and effectiveness of the scheme.
Peter White speaks to two blind piano tuners, who say they've had problems with delayed payments for support workers, slap-dash customer service and the disappearance of disability-specific advisors, and Philip Connolly of Disability Rights UK tell us what other employment groups of visually impaired people are telling them. We put their concerns to Mark Harper, Minister for Disabled People.
We also hear from listener Mike Lambert who equates having only four senses and using a white cane, with driving in a car down a motorway at 70MPH; humans weren't built for such things, and yet we do it, sometimes with surprising consequences.
Producer: Lee Kumutat.
TUE 21:00 All in the Mind (b04n338l)
Radicalisation; Bystander Effect; Recovery Letters
Claudia explores pioneering new research into radicalisation. She talks to Professor Kamaldeep Bhui who is doing research to try and prevent radicalisation in the early stages. His idea is, if we can understand what makes someone sympathetic to violence and terrorist actions then radicalisation can be stopped before it starts. He explains why vulnerability to radicalisation is linked to depression. Also in the programme, 50 years after a murder which spawned a whole new area of psychology. Did 38 people really watch the murder of Kitty Genovese and no one call the Police or help her? Claudia talks to author, Kevin Cook and psychologist, Rachel Manning about the misreporting of the case yet its continuing legacy for psychology in understanding why people do or don't help others. Claudia talks to James Withey, creator of the Recovery Letters, a website of letters from people who have been depressed to help those who are now.
TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (b04n31vw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 21:58 Weather (b04n23hp)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b04n338n)
Will the Republicans take the Senate in the US Mid Terms? Special reports from the key US states of Virginia and Kentucky, and analysis of what the results will mean for the last 2 years of the Obama Presidency.
Plus - the Ukrainian UK Ambassador on whether the ceasefire with Russia is now dead.
Andrew Hosken gets a special invitation to the North Korean embassy
And Ghoncheh Ghavami's brother speaks about her jail sentence and hunger strike.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective. With Ritula Shah in London and Jamie Coomarasamy in Washington.
TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04n33tf)
The Restoration of Otto Laird
Episode 7
A story of memory and place, old age and architecture.
"Otto had felt surprisingly nervous on the plane across from Geneva; not from any fear of flying, but a fear of what he was flying to. [...] Throughout the short flight he experienced a strange inner turbulence. He had a queasy sensation that he was re-establishing a connection with the past; flying backwards into his own memories. He would no longer be experiencing them from a distance, but in the city where they had once been real."
Architect Otto Laird has been living a semi-reclusive life with his second wife in Switzerland. But he is forced to re-engage with the wider world when he learns that his landmark building Marlowe House - a 1960s tower block in South London - has been marked for demolition.
Episode Seven
Sparked off by a resident of Marlowe House, Otto reassesses his troubled relationship with his son, Daniel.
Nigel Packer lives in London. He has been a music reviewer for BBC News Online and Ceefax, a reporting officer at the International Committee of the Red Cross and a contributor to various magazines and newspapers. The Restoration Of Otto Laird is his first novel.
Reader: Allan Corduner
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 23:00 Small Scenes (b04n33th)
Series 2
Episode 4
A visit to the Golden Woofers, Grimsby's number one dog show and a farmer genetically engineers some living sausages.
Symphonious sketch show, starring Daniel Rigby, Sara Pascoe, Mike Wozniak, Cariad Lloyd and Henry Paker.
Written by Benjamin Partridge, Henry Paker and Mike Wozniak.
Producer: Simon Mayhew-Archer.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (b04n33tk)
Sean Curran hears peers treat with disdain a new law to tackle the 'compensation culture'. There's trouble at Tower Hamlets. And women broadcasters describe juggling family life with work.
Editor: Peter Mulligan.
WEDNESDAY 05 NOVEMBER 2014
WED 00:00 Midnight News (b04n23m2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
WED 00:30 Germany: Memories of a Nation (b04k6tv0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04n23m6)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04n23md)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04n23mk)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (b04n23mn)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04n5y3z)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Leslie Griffiths.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (b04n5y41)
Enforced Labour, Invasive Species
A man who was forced to work for 13 years without pay on a farm between Cardiff and Newport has been talking about his ordeal. Darrell Simester is rebuilding his life since he was freed last year. Gwent Police have since widened an investigation because of concerns his case might not be unique.
Only international cooperation and long-term planning will be able to prevent the growing threat from invasive species. That's according to a high-level conference being held in Turkey this week. Invasive species are estimated to cost Europe up to 20 billion euros a year in lost biodiversity, human health and the economy.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04mj64k)
Red-breasted Goose
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Chris Packham presents the red-breasted goose in Siberia. Red-breasted geese are colourful birds with art-deco markings of brick-red, black and white. Despite their dainty and somewhat exotic appearance, these are hardy birds which breed in the remotest areas of arctic Siberia. They often set up home near the eyries of birds of prey, especially peregrine falcons. But there's method in the madness; These wildfowl nest on the ground where their eggs and chicks are vulnerable to predators such as Arctic foxes. But the ever vigilant peregrine falcons detecting a predator, will defend their eyries by calling and dive-bombing any intruders, and this also doubles as a warning system for the geese. In winter red-breasted geese migrate south where most of them graze on seeds and grasses at a few traditional sites in eastern Europe around the Black Sea.
WED 06:00 Today (b04n5y43)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Midweek (b04n5y45)
Arabella Dorman, the Rev Richard Coles, Ted the Bread Davies, Peter Rankin
Libby Purves meets artist Arabella Dorman; presenter and parish priest the Reverend Richard Coles; former baker Ted the Bread Davies and director Joan Littlewood's former assistant, Peter Rankin.
Arabella Dorman is a war artist and portrait painter. Her exhibition, Before the Dawn, features work reflecting her time in Afghanistan over the last five years. The exhibition shows the reality of life for Afghan families and British soldiers at a time of transition with the withdrawal of British and US troops. Before the Dawn is at La Galleria Pall Mall, London.
The Reverend Richard Coles is a parish priest in Northamptonshire and presenter of BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live. He was also half of the eighties pop duo the Communards with Jimmy Somerville. In his memoir he reveals his journey from a rock-and-roll life of sex and drugs to a life devoted to God and Christianity. Fathomless Riches - or How I went from Pop to Pulpit is published by Weidenfeld And Nicolson.
Ted Davies is a former chef and baker with the RAF. He has written a children's book, Ted the Bread and the Harvest Festival, based on the character Ted, a teddy bear who is a baker in a small Welsh village. The character of Ted the Bread is inspired by Ted's own story when he was stationed in Tobruk in North Africa, baking bread for 2000 service staff a day. Ted the Bread and the Harvest Festival by Ted Davies and Lynn Dulson is published by Wilton 65.
Peter Rankin worked as Joan Littlewood's assistant, becoming a close friend of the innovative theatre director. His biography Joan Littlewood: Dreams and Realities draws on their conversations, letters and Littlewood's personal archives to tell the story of how she rose from lowly beginnings to become a dominant figure in British theatre. Joan Littlewood: Dreams and Realities is published by Oberon Books.
Producer: Paula McGinley.
WED 09:45 Germany: Memories of a Nation (b04k6tv4)
The New German Jews
After concentration camps like Buchenwald and extermination camps like Auschwitz, it seemed that the story of Jews in Germany must come to a full stop at the end of the war. Why would any Jew in 1945, or in 1965 for that matter, see any part of their future in Germany? But remarkably Germany today has the fastest-growing Jewish population in Western Europe.
Neil MacGregor visits a synagogue in Offenbach, near Frankfurt, which was inaugurated in 1956 and has been greatly enlarged in the years since then.
Producer Paul Kobrak.
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04n5y47)
Jennie Lee; Ghoncheh Ghavami; Osteoporosis
Classic archive interview with Jennie Lee, one of the first Labour women MPs. Baroness Hollis, Lee's biographer, talks about her life and work. Ghoncheh Ghavami, imprisoned for attempting to watch a volleyball match. What does her case reveal about the status of women in Iran? Adeline Ginn on women and employment in the rail industry. Dr Neil Gittoes on the emotional and physical costs of osteoporosis. Jenni Murray presents.
WED 10:41 15 Minute Drama (b04n5y49)
Writing the Century: Passages from Empire
Episode 3
The latest in the Writing the Century series, based on real life letters and diaries of extraordinary ordinary people.
For 70 years The Colonial Nursing Association sent hundreds of hard working, adventurous nurses to work all over the then British colonies. Writer Vanessa Rosenthal discovered some of their correspondence housed in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, during her time as writer in residence at Kings College, London. By the 1920s these intrepid women, nearly all of whose lives were marked by loss after the First World War and the need to provide for themselves, were marching across the globe.
Ina Crafer, in her early 40's, struggled to make ends meet in Africa; Gwladys Hughes, in her late 30's, loved the challenges that nursing in an extreme Northern climate offered. Through their own words, we discover the daily minutiae, trials and great rewards of nursing life abroad for this generation of women who were ahead of their time.
The radio plays are based on research funded by the Wellcome Trust at the Centre for the Humanities and Health in collaboration with Prof. Anne Marie Rafferty, Drs Jessica Howell, Rosemary Wall and Anna Snaith, King's College, London.
Episode 3
Ina and Beryl fall out badly, until Ina becomes seriously ill, and the salutary story of Gwladys Hughes tending to a desperately ill woman in labour gives them some perspective.
Director ..... Polly Thomas
Sound designer ..... Nigel Lewis
Executive Producer ..... Alison Hindell
Writer ..... Vanessa Rosenthal
A BBC Cymru/Wales production or BBC Radio 4.
WED 10:55 The Listening Project (b04n5y4c)
Helen and Maria - A Room of My Own
Fi Glover re-visits the story of their escape from domestic abuse told by Maria and her mother two years ago. Now 13, Maria talks to her aunt about how she finally feels safe.
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 learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess.
WED 11:00 The Move (b04n600y)
Frustrations
Each year about three million people across the country pack their entire life into a removal truck and move home. And for most people it is rarely simple. Even the most meticulously planned move can be complicated and traumatic, the most optimistic people reduced to tears.
This week Rosie meets Romaine, a dynamic, fast-talking businesswoman who loves London, thriving on its energy and opportunities. But bringing up young boys and running a fashion company from their two bedroom flat is proving challenging. Sleeplessness, illness and harassment are plaguing the family and for the sake of them all, Romaine has to confront moving to a sleepy rural village.
Pete has long revelled in the unruly and bohemian side of Brighton and Hove. Now in his early fifties he is weary of jostling with tourists and party-goers and feels like a stranger in his own town. Having recently met someone on line who lives a mobile home in Aberystwyth, Pete prepares to pack up and move three hundred miles to be with them.
Producer: Sarah Bowen.
WED 11:30 Welcome to Our Village, Please Invade Carefully (b04n6010)
Series 2
Ctrl-Alt-Del
The Computer catches a virus - in fact, it's probably the most common virus on Earth. With Uljabaan's sole method of control, analysis and communication now compromised, the invasion is doomed in more ways than one.
Series two of Eddie Robson's sitcom about an alien race that have noticed that those all-at-once invasions of Earth never work out that well. So they've locked the small Buckinghamshire village of Cresdon Green behind an impenetrable force field in order to study human behaviour and decide if Earth is worth invading.
The only inhabitant who seems to be bothered by their new alien overlord is Katrina Lyons, who was only home for the weekend to borrow the money for a deposit for a flat when the force field went up.
So along with Lucy Alexander (the only teenager in the village, willing to rebel against whatever you've got) she forms The Resistance - slightly to the annoyance of her parents Margaret and Richard who wish she wouldn't make so much of a fuss, and much to the annoyance of Field Commander Uljabaan who, alongside his unintelligible minions and The Computer (his hyperintelligent supercomputer), is trying to actually run the invasion.
Katrina Lyons ...... Hattie Morahan
Richard Lyons ...... Peter Davison
Margaret Lyons ...... Jan Francis
Lucy Alexander ...... Hannah Murray
Field Commander Uljabaan ...... Charles Edwards
The Computer ...... John-Luke Roberts
The Virus ...... Cerrie Burnell
Script-edited by Arthur Mathews
Producer: Ed Morrish.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.
WED 12:00 News Summary (b04n23n1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 Witness (b04nhmc0)
Voting Against the War on Terror
After the 9/11 attacks on America, the US Congress voted to give the President extra powers to fight the 'War on Terror'. Only Congresswoman Barbara Lee voted against the decision. Hear her reasoning.
WED 12:15 You and Yours (b04n6012)
Early Check-In Fees; Student Phone Fraud; Missing Care Managers
Consumer news and features including:
The hotels charging extra for checking in early.
How mobile phone operators are responding to a major fraud.
And why do so many care homes still have no registered managers?
Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Jon Douglas.
WED 12:57 Weather (b04n23n3)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 13:00 World at One (b04n6014)
Analysis of current affairs reports, presented by Martha Kearney.
WED 13:45 Voices of the First World War (b04n6016)
The Trenches 1914
There are now no living veterans of WW1, but it is still possible to go back to the First World War through the memories of those who actually took part. In a unique partnership between the Imperial War Museums and the BBC, two sound archive collections featuring survivors of the war are brought together for the first time. The Imperial War Museums' holdings include a major oral history resource of remarkable recordings made in the 1980s and early 1990s with the remaining survivors of the conflict. The interviews were done not for immediate use or broadcast, but because it was felt that this diminishing resource that could never be replenished, would be of unique value in the future. Speakers recall in great detail as though it were yesterday the conditions of the trenches, the brutality of the battlefield, the experience of seeing their first casualty and hearing their first shell, their daily and nightly routines as soldiers, pilots or navy members of all ranks, and their psychological state in the face of so much trauma. This series will broadcast many of these recordings for the first time. Among the BBC's extensive collection of archive featuring first hand recollections of the conflict a century ago, are the interviews recorded for the 1964 TV series 'The Great War', which vividly bring to life the human experience of those fighting and living through the war.
Dan Snow narrates this new oral history, which will be broadcast in short seasons throughout the commemorative period.
Programme 8 - The Trenches 1914
Dan examines the experiences of men in the trenches during the first few months of the war, when the trenches weren't as elaborate as in later years. In archive drawn from the oral history collection of the Imperial War Museums and the BBC, speakers describe the dangers of looking out over the top, the problems of lice, and bring home the reality of living in clay below the water table for days at a time.
WED 14:00 The Archers (b04n6018)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (b04n601b)
Desecration
Irish government official and secret British agent, Francis Byrne, must act fast to encourage resistance and prevent Ireland from becoming a launch pad for a Nazi invasion of Britain. But at what cost to the Irish people, and to his own loved ones?
Inspired by a recently discovered documents confirming Hitler's wartime plans to invade Ireland, and using both fictional and real characters, Desecration is a powerful counter-factual drama. It imagines how the first few days of such an invasion would have unfolded - and shows the stark moral dilemmas faced by a nation's leaders when the time comes to choose between resistance and collaboration.
Writer ..... Hugh Costello
Producer ..... Eoin O'Callaghan.
WED 15:00 Money Box Live (b04n601d)
Mortgages
Looking for a good mortgage deal? For the latest rates, fees and tips call 03700 100 444 from
1pm to
3.30pm on Wednesday or e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk now.
Mortgage lenders have been cutting both interest rates and fees recently with some offering two year fixed rates just under 2%.
You will need a larger deposit to take advantage of the most competitive rates and you'll have to pass the lenders affordability test.
So what's the best mortgage for you, should you take a variable rate or a fix for two, three years or even longer?
How much will you be able to borrow and what other cost should you allow for?
What are the rules if you're self-employed?
Or perhaps you're a first time buyer looking for help to buy your first home.
Whatever your question, our mortgage team will be ready to share their knowledge and experience.
Presenter Ruth Alexander will be joined by:
Jonathan Harris, Director, Anderson Harris.
Paula John, Editor in Chief, Your Mortgage.
Simon Tyler, Managing Director, Tyler Mortgage Management.
Call 03700 100 444 between
1pm and
3.30pm on Wednesday or e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk now. Standard geographical charges apply. Calls from mobiles may be higher.
WED 15:30 All in the Mind (b04n338l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b04n601g)
'Lad culture' in higher education - Fugitives from the law in Philadelphia
Fugitives from the law: Laurie Taylor talks to Alice Goffman, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, about 'On the Run' her study of the lives of African American men caught up in webs of criminality in Philadelphia. She spent six years living in a neighbourhood marked by pervasive policing, violence and poverty. She argues that high tech surveillance and arrest quotas have done little to reduce crime or support young lives in the most disadvantaged parts of the US. They're joined by Professor Dick Hobbs, Criminologist at the University of Essex. Also, Alison Phipps, Director of the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Sussex, explores the rise of 'lad culture' in Higher Education and its relationship to the 'marketisation' of learning.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (b04n601j)
BBC R1 on iPlayer; BT Sport and Sky Sports; Pay-per-view news; Al Jazeera English chief
The BBC Trust has approved a new service for Radio 1 and 1Xtra, which will see it having its own TV channel on the BBC iPlayer from next week. It's hoped the channel will lead to an incremental 310,000 hours of viewing per month, and help the BBC establish a relationship with its younger viewers. But whilst it can offer the services, can the BBC offer the content that young people want? Steve Hewlett talks to former Radio 1 Managing Editor Paul Robinson.
It's a tough time for international news broadcasters; competition is fierce, and many networks are laying off staff. Not so for Al Jazeera English, which has been recruiting in a bid to boost the channel's "core strength" of eyewitness reporting. Managing Director Al Anstey joins Steve Hewlett to discuss why they're putting this at the centre of their news strategy; and nearly a year since the arrest of Peter Greste and others, Steve asks him how the imprisonment and trial of fellow colleagues has impacted on staff morale.
A new online platform called Blendle is allowing readers in Holland to buy newspaper articles individually, or their money back. It has 140,000 users and has just received financial backing from the New York Times and German publisher Axel Springer. Steve asks one of the founders Alexander Klopping how it can boost readership, and whether it can work elsewhere.
The fierce competition between BT Sport and Sky Sports continued week. The CEO of BT Gavin Patterson claimed Sky is bribing customers by giving away free broadband; Sky hit back saying that was on the day BT ran full page adverts enticing customers with free broadband and sports. Claire Enders from Enders Analysis gives Steve the inside track on how this ties in with sports rights.
Producer: Katy Takatsuki.
WED 17:00 PM (b04n601l)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04n23nb)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 In and Out of the Kitchen (b01qhqg5)
Series 2
The Wedding
Anthony is cock-a-hoop when asked out of the blue to be best man at a friend's wedding.
Problem is, he hasn't seen this friend since they were at school together and Damien isn't entirely convinced that Anthony has been invited purely because of his "excellent presentation skills".
Written by Miles Jupp.
Damien Trench ...... Miles Jupp
Anthony MacIlveny ...... Justin Edwards
Julian, the Groom ...... Ben Crowe
Ian Frobisher ...... Philip Fox
Fran, the Bride ...... Sarah Thom
Lionel ...... Rupert Vansittart
The Bride's Mum ...... Lesley Vickerage
Producer: Sam Michell
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2013.
WED 19:00 The Archers (b04n338b)
Jennifer and Lynda's protest at the town hall will be going ahead. They can count Tony and Pat in. Johnny can't go, as he's seeing his mum and Eamon.
Johnny's date for tonight, Melanie, has cried off. She claims to have a family party, but it turns out she's seeing Kenz (Johnny's nemesis). Johnny's devastated. Tony gives Johnny some man to man advice, talking about his own experience - and also John's - with girls.
Borchester Land has made a generous donation towards the bonfire night fireworks. Lynda is very sniffy. The Button girls have created an impressive guy.
Robert tells Kenton the latest about Lynda's Blithe Spirit production. Susan is offered the role of Edith, not realising it's the maid. Although she's busy, Susan can't resist the chance to dress up like Lady Mary in Downton Abbey. Robert also quizzes Kenton on the Ouija board incident at the Bull.
David has new petitions about the road decision to dish out. Kenton is pointedly surprised that David's still bothering, now that he and Ruth have thrown in the towel.
Pat tells David how much they will miss him. Things won't be the same. Johnny slips off and gets chatting to a girl. Tony's pleased that he's clearly feeling better - and just look who he's talking to...
WED 19:15 Front Row (b04n6117)
Ben Elton, Queen Coal, Transmitting Andy Warhol, Leviathan, Birds in Literature
Successful novelist, playwright and stand-up comic, Ben Elton, a central figure in the alternative comedy scene in the 1980s, joins Kirsty Lang to discuss his new novel, Time And Time Again. His book follows ex-soldier Hugh Stanton who is transported back to 1914 from 2025, in order to prevent the Great War and re-write history.
Andy Warhol is the subject of a new show at Tate Liverpool which looks at how this quintessential 20th century artist sought to master the mass media of his day to ensure his art could reach as many people as possible. In the company of Darren Pih, the exhibition's curator, Kirsty Lang takes a look at Transmitting Andy Warhol.
Bryony Lavery's latest play, Queen Coal looks at the impact of the 1980s miners strike on the lives of three people who bonded on the picket lines. Writer Joolz Denby reviews.
Fresh from its recent win of the Best Film prize at the BFI London Film Festival, Leviathan - a tale of corruption in a small Russian town - opens in cinemas this week. Novelist Nicholas Royle reviews.
Helen McDonald has just won the £20,000 Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction for her memoir, H is for Hawk, about coming to terms with the death of her father by trying to win the trust of a goshawk, Mabel. What significance does the bird have here and elsewhere in literature? Kirsty is joined by Horatio Clare, writer and author of A Single Swallow.
WED 19:45 Germany: Memories of a Nation (b04k6tv4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 today]
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (b04n6119)
The moral purpose of tax
Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the minister of finances for King Louis XIV of France said "The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least possible amount of hissing". You probably won't be surprised to learn that Colbert's central economic principle was that the wealth and the economy of France should serve the state. When it comes to this equation David Cameron has made it clear that he's firmly on the side of the goose. Our PM wasn't quite as colourful as Colbert when he recently set out his principles on taxation, but he did raise more than just an economic argument. It was, he said, his moral duty, to cut taxes. So this week on the Moral Maze we ask: what is the moral purpose of tax? Is tax a kind of moral mechanism to tackle injustice and inequality on our society? Or is the moral imperative of taxation to create as much wealth as possible in the first place, without which no-one benefits and let individuals decide how they send their cash? Can you just measure the morality of taxation through its utilitarian consequences - the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers? Of course that can be used to justify punishing taxes on the wealthy in the name of redistribution, just as it can to argue that the state should allow as many people as possible the freedom to keep as much of their own money as possible. Or is there some overriding moral virtue in raising and paying tax? When citizens allow the state to take some of their money it is a fundamental part of the democratic contract. If voters were equally willing to support high or low taxes which would be the more moral society? The one with high or low taxes? Is tax an issue of individual freedom versus collective altruism? Moral Maze - Presented by Michael Buerk
Panellists: Michael Portillo, Melanie Phillips, Matthew Taylor and Mehdi Hasan.
Witnesses: Professor David Myddelton, Canon Dr. Angus Ritchie, Frances Coppola and Danny Kruger.
Produced by Phil Pegum.
WED 20:45 Four Thought (b04n611c)
Series 4
Claire Cunningham
Acclaimed disabled dancer and choreographer, Claire Cunningham, offers up a starkly honest and intriguing challenge to anyone who's ever just assumed that someone with a disability would want to be 'cured' if they could be. For Claire being disabled makes her unique and gives her a fresh insight into life. In this compelling edition of Four Thought she considers why on earth she'd opt to be just the same as everyone else when she can be different, utterly individual, unlike anyone else.
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (b04n3380)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 Midweek (b04n5y45)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 21:58 Weather (b04n23nh)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b04n611f)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04n611h)
The Restoration of Otto Laird
Episode 8
A story of memory and place, old age and architecture.
"Otto had felt surprisingly nervous on the plane across from Geneva; not from any fear of flying, but a fear of what he was flying to. [...] Throughout the short flight he experienced a strange inner turbulence. He had a queasy sensation that he was re-establishing a connection with the past; flying backwards into his own memories. He would no longer be experiencing them from a distance, but in the city where they had once been real."
Architect Otto Laird has been living a semi-reclusive life with his second wife in Switzerland. But he is forced to re-engage with the wider world when he learns that his landmark building Marlowe House - a 1960s tower block in South London - has been marked for demolition.
Episode Eight
On the last day of filming, Otto remembers the later years of his marriage to Cynthia.
Nigel Packer lives in London. He has been a music reviewer for BBC News Online and Ceefax, a reporting officer at the International Committee of the Red Cross and a contributor to various magazines and newspapers. The Restoration Of Otto Laird is his first novel.
Reader: Allan Corduner
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 23:00 James Acaster's Findings (b04n611k)
Series 1
1. Wood
James Acaster presents the results of his research into a variety of subjects.
First off, he’s been investigating 'Wood'.
With Nathaniel Metcalfe, and Bryony Hannah.
Producer: Lyndsay Fenner
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.
WED 23:15 Tim Key's Late Night Poetry Programme (b01c7s27)
Series 1
Family
Tim Key grapples with the idea of 'family' via his narrative poem: The Godfather. Musical accompaniment is provided by Tom Basden.
Written and presented by Tim Key
With Tom Basden
Produced by James Robinson.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (b04n61br)
The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, warns the Prime Minister that he has 'no allies' in Europe.
But speaking at question time, David Cameron says Labour has 'no plan' for the UK's future relationship with the European Union.
The clash came as the European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, suggests Mr Cameron 'has a problem' with other EU leaders.
MPs call on the Government to help workers at Rolls-Royce following the firm's decision to cut 2,600 jobs over the next 18 months.
Peers demand more action to tackle illegal ticket touting
And the Public Accounts Committee holds a hearing into a report by the UK's spending watchdog which criticised ministers for failing to deport more foreign criminals.
Susan Hulme and team report on today's events in Parliament.
THURSDAY 06 NOVEMBER 2014
THU 00:00 Midnight News (b04n23pk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
THU 00:30 Germany: Memories of a Nation (b04k6tv4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04n23pm)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04n23pp)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04n23pr)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (b04n23pt)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04n62jq)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Leslie Griffiths.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (b04n62js)
Dairy MPs, Knotweed, badgers
Anne McIntosh, Chairwoman of the Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs committee, tells Farming Today that the voluntary dairy code should be extended so that processors must give farmers contracts which specify raw milk prices, volume and timing of deliveries.
The BBC's Environment Analyst Roger Harrabin reports on a gamekeeper awaiting sentencing for what wildlife groups are calling one of the worst case of bird of prey poisoning ever recorded in England. Allen Lambert, who worked on the Stody Estate, in Norfolk was found guilty last month of deliberately killing ten buzzards and a sparrowhawk and possessing items used to prepare poison baits. All this week, Farming Today is taking a look at invasive species and the damage they can do to the countryside. The invasive species, Japanese Knotweed, costs the British economy around 166-million pounds a year. It grows at around one metre per month causing damage to roads, buildings and pretty much anything else which gets in its way. Lucy Bickerton joins the Avon Invasive Weeds Forum to monitor this invader and the damage it is causing to the river Frome.
The Welsh Government is launching a survey of dead badgers, to see how many have TB. it's the first study of its kind in Wales for 8 years and will cover badgers found in any part of the country. Its part of the bovine TB eradication programme which has introduced new cattle movement restictions and some vaccination of badgers. The chief vet for Wales, Christianne Glossop, explains why.Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Ruth Sanderson.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04ml9bd)
North Island Kokako
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Chris Packham presents the North Island kokako from New Zealand. Kokakos are bluish-grey, crow-sized birds with black masks. Those from the North Island sport bright blue fleshy lobes called wattles; one on each side of the bill. And they are famous in New Zealand for their beautiful haunting song which males and females sing, often in a long duet in the early morning. Known by some people as the squirrel of the woods because of their large tails and habit of running along branches, kokako used to be widespread, today fewer than 1000 pairs remain. The kokako's slow and deliberate, almost thoughtful, flute-like song evokes the islands' forests and in the film, The Piano, it features as part of the chorus of woodland birds in some of the most atmospheric scenes.
THU 06:00 Today (b04n62jv)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (b04n62jx)
Hatshepsut
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut, whose name means 'foremost of noble ladies'. She ruled Egypt from about 1479 - 1458 BC and some scholars argue that she was one of the most successful and influential pharaohs. When she came to the throne, Egypt was still recovering from a period of turbulence known as the Second Intermediate Period a few generations earlier. Hatshepsut reasserted Egyptian power by building up international trade and commissioned buildings considered masterpieces of Egyptian architecture. She also made significant changes to the ideology surrounding the pharaoh and the gods. However, following her death, her name was erased from the records and left out of ancient lists of Egyptian kings.
With:
Elizabeth Frood
Associate Professor of Egyptology at the University of Oxford
Kate Spence
Lecturer in Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Cambridge
Campbell Price
Curator of Egypt and Sudan at The Manchester Museum
Producer: Victoria Brignell.
THU 09:45 Germany: Memories of a Nation (b04k6tvb)
Barlach's Angel
Neil MacGregor focuses on Ernst Barlach's sculpture Hovering Angel, a unique war memorial, commissioned in 1926 to hang in the cathedral in Güstrow.
Producer Paul Kobrak.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04n62jz)
Fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg
Fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg is still producing iconic wrap dresses forty years after she came up with the idea. She talks to Jenni about creating her multi-million pound empire, life lessons from her mother, who was a holocaust survivor, and becoming the independent person she wanted to be.
In the next part of our sexual abuse series we look at Jimmy Savile, Operation Yewtree and the culture of sexual abuse amongst celebrities. We hear from a survivor of Savile's abuse and talk to Dan Davies, author of 'In Plain Sight' which investigates his crimes.
In the 18th century Queen Caroline, wife of King George II, ruled as regent on four occasions. With the help of her twenty-one Ladies of the Bedchamber she petitioned for a Royal Charter to be issued to Thomas Coram, to start the first Foundling Hospital in London. Carol Harris the Social History Editor of the Foundling Museum talks about the legacy of her work.
She's been called 'The queen of page turners' and 'The voice of a generation' Marian Keyes the number one global bestseller is published in 39 languages, and has sold over 25 million copies worldwide. She talks to Jenni about her new book the story of losing the life you knew and finding a new one.
THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b04n62k1)
Writing the Century: Passages from Empire
Episode 4
The latest in the Writing the Century series, based on real life letters and diaries of extraordinary ordinary people.
For 70 years The Colonial Nursing Association sent hundreds of hard working, adventurous nurses to work all over the British colonies. Writer Vanessa Rosenthal discovered some of their correspondence housed in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, during her time as writer in residence at Kings College, London. By the 1920s these intrepid women, many of whose lives were marked by loss after the First World War and the need to provide for themselves, were marching across the globe.
Ina Crafer, in her early 40's, struggled to make ends meet in Africa; Gwladys Hughes, in her late 30's, loved the challenges that nursing in an extreme Northern climate offered. Through their own words, we discover the daily minutiae, trials and great rewards of nursing life abroad for this generation of women who were ahead of their time.
The radio plays are based on research funded by the Wellcome Trust at the Centre for the Humanities and Health in collaboration with Prof. Anne Marie Rafferty, Drs Jessica Howell, Rosemary Wall and Anna Snaith, King's College, London.
Episode 4
Back in her beloved Northern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Ina becomes engaged. Gwladys is thrilled to have moved too, to Labrador, to support the Inuit community.
Director ..... Polly Thomas
Sound designer ..... Nigel Lewis
Executive Producer ..... Alison Hindell
Writer ..... Vanessa Rosenthal
A BBC Cymru/Wales production or BBC Radio 4.
THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (b04n23pw)
Talking to Ghosts
Reporters. Today, from Sierra Leone: why covering the Ebola outbreak is an assignment like no other, Andrew Harding; did the now-deposed leader of Burkina Faso ignore warning signs that an extension to his rule wouldn't be tolerated, Chris Simpson; Malta's an island rich in history and heritage, but it isn't only rooted in the past, Juliet Rix; Germany has its own views on immigration - official policy says the incomers must be made welcome, Jenny Hill; Germany and Korea were once BOTH divided countries; Steve Evans who's lived in Berlin and in Seoul finds these are nations with much in common, yet they're very different too.
THU 11:30 Spank the Plank (b04n62k3)
The low, rootsy twang you can often hear in funk music is called slap bass - a tricky, often divisive guitar technique involving whacking the bass strings with your thumb. Comedian Mitch Benn charts its progression from the upright double basses of the 1930s, through Elvis Presley to the high energy rock of bands like Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Primus. Talking to players like Yolanda Charles, Mark King and Guy Pratt, he discovers how an instrument which often found its place at the back of the stage came out of the shadows into the bright lights of disco and '70s funk.
But Mitch is going to do more than talk about slap bass. He's going to learn how to do it.
The humiliation stakes are high as he takes lessons from some of the UK's foremost bassists, ahead of his nerve-wracking first performance in front of an audience.
Along the way Mitch tackles a widely held opinion about the technique - that while it's fun for the players, audiences who have to listen to it don't enjoy themselves quite so much. Mitch puts the hard questions to the players who regularly lay down some serious slap.
Thumb at the ready - Mitch Benn is about to Spank the Plank.
Produced by Kevin Core.
THU 12:00 News Summary (b04n23py)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 Witness (b04nhmfm)
The Soweto Uprising
In 1976 schoolchildren marched through Soweto to protest against a decision by the South African government to force them to study in Afrikaans. But security forces policing the march opened fire and the Soweto Uprising began. Bongi Mkhabela was a schoolgirl who helped organise the protest.
THU 12:15 You and Yours (b04n62k5)
Lost and Stolen Mobile Phones; Self-build Homes; Online Car Sales
A year into a government plan to stop excessive costs being run up on lost or stolen mobile phones, some customers are still being hit with large bills.
The car manufacturer that has found a way to sell its cars without having to see or speak with a dealer.
And the true costs of building your own home. Very few people in the UK do it, but it could be easier, and cost less, than you think.
Presenter: Louise Minchin
Producer: Joel Moors.
THU 12:57 Weather (b04n23q0)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 13:00 World at One (b04n62k7)
Analysis of current affairs reports, presented by Martha Kearney.
THU 13:45 Voices of the First World War (b04n62k9)
Prisoners of War
There are now no living veterans of WW1, but it is still possible to go back to the First World War through the memories of those who actually took part. In a unique partnership between the Imperial War Museums and the BBC, two sound archive collections featuring survivors of the war are brought together for the first time. The Imperial War Museums' holdings include a major oral history resource of remarkable recordings made in the 1980s and early 1990s with the remaining survivors of the conflict. The interviews were done not for immediate use or broadcast, but because it was felt that this diminishing resource that could never be replenished, would be of unique value in the future. Speakers recall in great detail as though it were yesterday the conditions of the trenches, the brutality of the battlefield, the experience of seeing their first casualty and hearing their first shell, their daily and nightly routines as soldiers, pilots or navy members of all ranks, and their psychological state in the face of so much trauma. This series will broadcast many of these recordings for the first time. Among the BBC's extensive collection of archive featuring first hand recollections of the conflict a century ago, are the interviews recorded for the 1964 TV series 'The Great War', which vividly bring to life the human experience of those fighting and living through the war.
Dan Snow narrates this new oral history, which will be broadcast in short seasons throughout the commemorative period.
Programme 9 - Prisoners of War
Using the voices of soldiers who were among the first to be taken prisoner, Dan Snow explores the conditions they endured in German camps during the early stages of the war.
THU 14:00 The Archers (b04n338b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (b04n62n6)
The Man Who Fell to Earth
In the early hours of Sunday 9th September 2012, a young black man fell out of the sky and landed, dead, on a residential street in Barnes. The man had been a stowaway. Through three fictional residents in the street where the body landed, Annalisa D'Innella 's first radio play mixes fact with fiction to explore the experience of being British and middle class.
It's a play about greed, grief, courage, utopias and magical thinking - as well as our universal tendency to focus on what we lack instead of what we have.
Written by Annalisa D'Innella
Produced and Directed by Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk poduction for BBC Radio 4.
THU 15:00 Open Country (b04n62n8)
Orchards in Herefordshire
Felicity Evans visits the autumnal orchards of Herefordshire and discovers how centuries of cider production have shaped this landscape. For at least 350 years there has been cider production in this area and there are over 800 orchards across the Wye Valley, which make a significant contribution to the beautiful countryside.
Norman Stanier's family have lived in this area for generations and are deeply rooted ('scuse the pun') in the apple industry here. He shares his passion for this landscape and explains how centuries ago these local enterprises caught the eye of Gladstone's government as they sought to do away with the 'Yankee Apples' and how today, this area has become 'The Big Apple' of the UK.
Featuring visits to a variety of cider and perry producers - from small scale ametuer production to award winning artisan ciders and global scale distribution from Europes largest cider factory.
Produced by Nicola Humphries.
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b04n2fmv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Bookclub (b04n2k2h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b04n642w)
Interstellar; The Killing Fields; Sound of Harry Potter
Francine Stock hears from director Christopher Nolan about the tension between eco-conservatism and interplanetary pioneer spirit in his new space Blockbuster INTERSTELLAR. There's also the second part of a series featuring the sound effects experts - this time Randy Thom who added more than a little of himself to the spells and wand-craft of the Harry Potter series, and on the 30th anniversary of its release, Lord Puttnam talks about the enduring impact of THE KILLING FIELDS, particularly in Cambodia.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b04n642y)
Science of ageing; Microneedles; Firelab; Rosetta; Scientific authorship
What is ageing?
In 1900, the global average life expectancy was 31, today it's 70, and the number of people over 85 in the UK is predicted to double in the next 20 years. How has ageing evolved, and do we know what is happening in our cells as we age? Professor Richard Faragher, University of Brighton, explains.
Sticking plaster-like needle replacement
Microneedles on a sticking-plaster-like patch may be the painless and safe way doctors will test for drugs and infections, and give vaccinations in the future. Roland Pease tries an alternative to the traditional injection at Queen's University Belfast with Dr Ryan Donnelly.
Science of fire
It's November, and these are the days when you may well have a smouldering bonfire in your back garden. Marnie Chesterton meets scientists whose lives are devoted to the behaviour of fire.
Comet landing mission nears
The Rosetta Mission is entering the final stages before landing on a comet. By this time next week, we will know if the European Space Agency has successfully achieved what could be an extraordinary feat. Paolo Ferri, Head of Mission Operations at the European Space Agency, outlines the challenge.
Dr Stronzo and other cases
Dr Stronzo Bestiale made his debut in the world of scientific publications in 1987, authoring a paper entitled 'Diffusion in a periodic Lorentz gas', in the Journal of Statistical Physics. However, he doesn't exist. This phantom physicist is not an isolated incident: Mike Holderness at New Scientist has been tracking scientific author apparitions for some time.
Producer: Marnie Chesterton
Assistant Producer: Jen Whyntie.
THU 17:00 PM (b04n6430)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04n23q2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b04n6432)
Series 4
Episode 4
John Finnemore, the writer and star of Cabin Pressure, regular guest on The Now Show and popper-upper in things like Miranda, records a fourth series of his hit sketch show.
4/6: In the fourth edition of the series, John tries to present a classic sketch, but the others aren't going to help him. We also hear a speech from someone who followed their dream, and induct a new employee at Vicarstown train station, on the Island of Sodor.
The first series of John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme was described as "sparklingly clever" by The Daily Telegraph and "one of the most consistently funny sketch shows for quite some time" by The Guardian. The second series won Best Radio Comedy at both the Chortle and Comedy.co.uk awards, and was nominated for a Radio Academy award. The third series actually won a Radio Academy award.
In this fourth series, John has written more sketches, like the sketches from the other series. Not so much like them that they feel stale and repetitious; but on the other hand not so different that it feels like a misguided attempt to completely change the show. Quite like the old sketches, in other words, but about different things and with different jokes. (Although it's a pretty safe bet some of them will involve talking animals.)
Written by and starring ... John Finnemore
Also featuring ... Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Simon Kane, Lawry Lewin and Carrie Quinlan.
Original music by ... Susannah Pearse & Sally Stares.
Producer ... Ed Morrish.
THU 19:00 The Archers (b04n6434)
Kenton tells Elizabeth about Hilary Noakes's shed roof being set on fire from the fireworks. Kenton denies any involvement.
Helen and Pat discuss Peggy's 90th. Tony insists on properly marking it. There will be a party next Thursday on the actual birthday. They're putting together an album of songs from the 1920s onwards and Jennifer is creating a photo memory book.
Johnny's keeping busy shadowing sausage making with Maurice.
Jill explains to Kenton, Shula and Elizabeth why she's moving north with David and Ruth. Firstly, it's not favouritism. Being back at Brookfield, and feeling useful, has given Jill a new lease of life. But the main and only reason for going is that farming is so much a part of Jill's life. It's who she is. Kenton is critical of David for overreacting to the road news and rushing things. He's also concerned for Jill, and worried about not being able to see her, or at least not as often.
Kenton opens up to Shula. He's angry with David for putting Jill on the spot. She belongs here. Jill tells Elizabeth that her biggest regret will be not being around to help when they need her. But Jill steels herself. She's made her decision and just has to get on with it.
THU 19:15 Front Row (b04n6436)
Made In Dagenham; Elif Shafak; Gold at Buckingham Palace
Tonight's Front Row reviews the stage-musical version of the film, Made In Dagenham, starring Gemma Arterton, and Samira Ahmed is given a guided tour around Gold - a new exhibition at Buckingham Palace.
Also in the programme: Elif Shafak talks about her latest novel, The Architect's Apprentice, set in 16th century Istanbul - and whether the increasingly popularity of comic books is making them less subversive.
THU 19:45 Germany: Memories of a Nation (b04k6tvb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 today]
THU 20:00 Law in Action (b04n3382)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Tuesday]
THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (b04n6438)
Live Long and Prosper
Very few companies survive for centuries. Evan Davis hears from a luxury jeweller, a removals firm and a diversified business that makes money from ships, finance and groceries. Between them they have nearly a thousand years of business experience. What strategies have they embarked on to ensure that they live long and prosper? Has their history become a burden or a motivator? And have they sacrificed growth for corporate longevity?
Guests:
Sir Michael Bibby, MD The Bibby Line
Michael Wainwright, CEO Boodles
Stuart Burnett, Partner Shore Porters Society
Producer:
Rosamund Jones.
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b04n642y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (b04n62jx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 21:58 Weather (b04n23q4)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b04n643b)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04n643d)
The Restoration of Otto Laird
Episode 9
A story of memory and place, old age and architecture.
"Otto had felt surprisingly nervous on the plane across from Geneva; not from any fear of flying, but a fear of what he was flying to. [...] Throughout the short flight he experienced a strange inner turbulence. He had a queasy sensation that he was re-establishing a connection with the past; flying backwards into his own memories. He would no longer be experiencing them from a distance, but in the city where they had once been real."
Architect Otto Laird has been living a semi-reclusive life with his second wife in Switzerland. But he is forced to re-engage with the wider world when he learns that his landmark building Marlowe House - a 1960s tower block in South London - has been marked for demolition.
Episode Nine
Sitting on a bench outside the hospital in Queens Square, Otto relives the last months of Cynthia's illness.
Nigel Packer lives in London. He has been a music reviewer for BBC News Online and Ceefax, a reporting officer at the International Committee of the Red Cross and a contributor to various magazines and newspapers. The Restoration Of Otto Laird is his first novel.
Reader: Allan Corduner
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 23:00 52 First Impressions with David Quantick (b04n64bg)
Series 1
Episode 4
Journalist and comedy writer David Quantick has met and interviewed hundreds of people. What were his first impressions, how have they changed and does it all matter?
In this final programme of the series, there are stories about Grace Jones, N F Simpson and his friends Andy and Fiona, among others.
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (b04n64bj)
Sean Curran hears energy ministers pledge the lights will stay on this winter. MPs take sides over Iran. A senior Tory raises a 'national scandal'. And peers debate Ebola.
Editor: Peter Mulligan.
FRIDAY 07 NOVEMBER 2014
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b04n23r2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
FRI 00:30 Germany: Memories of a Nation (b04k6tvb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04n23r4)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04n23r6)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04n23r8)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b04n23rb)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04n67x6)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Leslie Griffiths.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b04n67x8)
Dairy Crest Takeover; Minks; Mushrooms
In one of the biggest deals of its kind for years, Dairy Crest is selling its milk business to Muller-Wiseman for £80 million. The sale will include the fresh liquid milk, flavoured milk, cream, butter and milk powder businesses, 3 processing plants, around 70 depots and 700 contracts with dairy farmers. As we hear from Muller UK's CEO, Ronald Kers, they're promising to honour contracts with dairy farmers. Dairy Co, which works on behalf of British dairy farmers, says that the sale of Dairy Crest represents a big change.
All this week we've been hearing about invasive species, and their impact on the countryside. Today, it's the turn of the mink, which is firmly established in many parts of the country, after escaping or being released from fur farms. Nancy Nicolson reports from Perthshire.
Europe's largest mushroom farm is situated in the west of England. Monaghan's near Bristol produces 185,000 kilogrammes of mushrooms every week. Food Programme reporter Dan Saladino takes a look behind the scenes.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Mark Smalley.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04mlmf8)
Blue Jay
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Chris Packham presents the North American blue jay. The loud warning screams of blue jays are just part of their extensive vocabulary. These birds are intelligent mimics. Blue jays are neat handsome birds; lavender-blue above and greyish below with a perky blue crest, black collar and white face. But the blue jay is not blue, but black. Its feather barbs contain a dark layer of melanin pigment; the blue we see is caused by light scattering through modified cells on the surface of the feather barbs and reflected back as blue. Common over much of eastern and central North America, blue jays will move in loose flocks to take advantage of autumnal tree mast. A single blue jay can collect and bury thousands of beechnuts, hickory nuts and acorns (in a behaviour known as caching) returning later in the year to retrieve these buried nuts. Any they fail to find, assist in the natural regeneration of native woodlands.
FRI 06:00 Today (b04n67xb)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b04n2fn5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Germany: Memories of a Nation (b04k6tvd)
Reichstag
Neil MacGregor began his journey through 600 years of German history at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, and ends it at the Reichstag, seat of the German Parliament. These two extraordinary buildings, only a few hundred yards apart, carry in their very stones the political history of the country.
Neil talks to architect Norman Foster, who in 1992 won the commission to restore the Reichstag, when Germany's Parliament returned to Berlin in the wake of re-unification.
Producer Paul Kobrak.
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04n67xd)
Shirley Conran; Perinatal Mental Health; Faith and Sexuality; Mother & Daughter in Comedy
Octogenarian Shirley Conran, author of Superwoman and Lace, tells Jenni why women need to embrace sex whatever their age. A report by the London School of Economics and the Centre for Mental Health has found significant gaps in the detection of mental health problems in the period before and after birth, saying that only an estimated 40% are diagnosed, with just 3% of women experiencing a full recovery. Rabbi Ariel Friedlander, theologian and star of the American Christian music scene, Vicky Beeching and Safra project board member, Nadia, discuss the tensions that exist between their faith and sexuality. Jana Kennedy and her mother Heidi Stransky on their mother and daughter comedy show.
FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b04n67xg)
Writing the Century: Passages from Empire
Episode 5
The latest in the Writing the Century series, based on real life letters and diaries of extraordinary ordinary people.
For 70 years The Colonial Nursing Association sent hundreds of hard working, adventurous nurses to work all over the then British colonies. Writer Vanessa Rosenthal discovered some of their correspondence housed in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, during her time as writer in residence at Kings College, London. By the 1920s these intrepid women, many of whose lives were marked by loss after the First World War and the need to provide for themselves, were marching across the globe.
Ina Crafer, in her early 40's, struggled to make ends meet in Africa; Gwladys Hughes, in her late 30's, loved the challenges that nursing in an extreme Northern climate offered. Through their own words, we discover the daily minutiae, trials and great rewards of nursing life abroad for this generation of women who were ahead of their time.
The radio plays are based on research funded by the Wellcome Trust at the Centre for the Humanities and Health in collaboration with Prof. Anne Marie Rafferty, Drs Jessica Howell, Rosemary Wall and Anna Snaith, King's College, London.
Episode 5
Happiness comes at last to Ina, on her wedding day, made all the sweeter for a letter from Gwladys Hughes, still nursing on the other side of the world, both pioneers in their own way.
Director ..... Polly Thomas
Sound designer ..... Nigel Lewis
PC ..... Willa King
Executive Producer ..... Alison Hindell
Writer ..... Vanessa Rosenthal
A BBC Cymru/Wales production or BBC Radio 4.
FRI 11:00 The Louis Zamperini Story (b04n67xj)
A documentary, featuring Angelina Jolie, exploring the extraordinary life of Louis Zamperini, an archetypal American hero, in war and peace.
Angelina Jolie shares some very personal insight in to the important role that the American war hero has played in her life. She talks openly about her deep respect for Louis with historian Dr Uta Balbier, who tells his compelling story.
Louis Zamperini broke an American sporting record when he was 19, qualifying to run the 5,000 metres in the 1936 Berlin Olympics - the youngest athlete to ever represent his country. He didn't win, but still became a household name - a sports hero, who gained notoriety for stealing Hitler's flag from his Berlin HQ as a memento.
A few years later, the nation was at war and Zamperini joined the US Air Force, trained as a bombardier and was posted to the Pacific theatre, where he crewed on a B-24 bomber. His plane crashed in April 1942 and he was one of three survivors who spent 47 days drifting on a raft before being captured by the Japanese. He was interned in a prisoner of war camp where he endured 2 and a half years of regular brutal punishment.
Once he was released, Louis Zamperini became a born again Christian and devoted his life to redemption – travelling to Japan to track down each guard who abused him and personally forgiving them.
For the next 60 years, Zamperini devoted his life to teaching the importance of forgiveness and he became a popular and successful public speaker.
Angelina Jolie explains why Louis was so influential and how he provided her with a sense of purpose in her own private and professional life.
Produced by Des Shaw
A Ten Alps production
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.
FRI 11:30 The Missing Hancocks (b04n67xl)
Series 1
The Newspaper
Between 1954 and 1959, BBC Radio recorded 102 episodes of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson's comedy classic Hancock's Half Hour. The first modern sitcom, it made stars of Tony Hancock, Sid James and Kenneth Williams, and launched Galton and Simpson on one of the most successful comedy-writing partnerships in history. But 20 episodes of the show are missing from the BBC archives, and have not been heard since their original transmission nearly sixty years ago. Now, five of those episodes have been lovingly re-recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC Radio Theatre, featuring a stellar cast led by Kevin McNally as The Lad Himself.
Tonight's episode: The Newspaper. Tony inherits a newspaper, and sets about changing the world.
Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, and with the classic score newly recorded by the BBC Concert Orchestra, the show stars Kevin McNally, Kevin Eldon, Simon Greenall, Robin Sebastian and Susy Kane. The Newspaper was last broadcast in February 1956.
Produced by Ed Morrish and Neil Pearson.
FRI 12:00 News Summary (b04n23rd)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Witness (b04ndlkj)
The Murder of Anna Politkovskaya
In October 2006 the campaigning Russian human rights journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead outside her Moscow flat. Her son Ilya Politkovsky was the first member of her family at the scene.
FRI 12:15 You and Yours (b04n67xn)
Hydrogen Cars and Supermarket Loyalty Cards
Peter White focuses on efforts to get more hydrogen powered vehicles onto Britain's roads.
It's fifty years since the first anti-drink drive campaign but how effective have they been?
And the rise and fall of the loyalty card. Do they have a future in the way we shop?
FRI 12:57 Weather (b04n23rg)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 13:00 World at One (b04ndlkl)
Analysis of current affairs reports, presented by Mark Mardell.
FRI 13:45 Voices of the First World War (b04n67xq)
The Christmas Truce
There are now no living veterans of WW1, but it is still possible to go back to the First World War through the memories of those who actually took part. In a unique partnership between the Imperial War Museums and the BBC, two sound archive collections featuring survivors of the war are brought together for the first time. The Imperial War Museums' holdings include a major oral history resource of remarkable recordings made in the 1980s and early 1990s with the remaining survivors of the conflict. The interviews were done not for immediate use or broadcast, but because it was felt that this diminishing resource that could never be replenished, would be of unique value in the future. Among the BBC's extensive collection of archive featuring first hand recollections of the conflict a century ago, are the interviews recorded for the 1964 TV series 'The Great War', which vividly bring to life the human experience of those fighting and living through the war.
Dan Snow narrates this new oral history, which will be broadcast in short seasons throughout the commemorative period.
Programme 10 - The Christmas Truce
In the last of the series for 1914, veterans of the First World War recall the few hours of impromptu ceasefire on 25th December 1914, when German and British troops mingled and played football in No Man's Land on the Western Front. Drawing on the recollections of soldiers in the oral history collection of the Imperial War Museum and the BBC archive. Narrated by Dan Snow.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (b04n6434)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (b01hl29m)
Dream Repair
Emma uses a powerful, illegal, and highly addictive device to try to alleviate the pain of her disturbing nightmares. As her dependency spirals out of control she is prepared to betray her loved ones, until finally she's forced to face the real reason behind her addiction.
Written by Thomas Legendre
A BBC Cymru Wales production directed by Emma Bodger.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b04n6951)
Leeds
Eric Robson hosts the horticultural panel programme from Leeds. Bob Flowerdew, Christine Walkden and Matthew Wilson take questions from local gardeners. Bob and Katie Rushworth visit a jungle garden which is thriving despite the chilly climate.
Produced by Howard Shannon
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
This week's questions and answers:
Q. I sowed my Leeks in June this year. Now they look like Spring Onions. Should I leave them to grow or throw them into a stir-fry now?
A. Bob says that next year, sow them earlier - April at the latest. They will grow through the winter, but they have a high chance of bolting. If this happens, cut the flower head off then a bulb will develop which you can leave for a couple of weeks before digging up and putting to one side. You can replant those bulbs at the end of August and have better sized Leeks by Christmas. Go for 'Musselburgh' seeds as they are reliable.
Eric advises you to give up!
Bunny says you should plant them at least nine inches apart. Transplant them now and you'll have a good chance of decent sized leeks soon.
Q. Can the panel recommend some plants that we could grow in containers in a shaded paved area? The area gets sun in the late afternoon. We want a good view, something that reminds us of the courtyards of Seville.
A. This is ambitious. Go for containers with a structure of climbers such as Trachelospermum Jasminoides - 'Star Jasmine'. Sow annuals for colour. Try Virginian Stock, Californian Poppies, Wallflowers and Night-scented stock. Plumbago 'crystal waters', Pelegonium 'Lord Beaufort' or 'Cézanne' would also work well as long as you can keep them frost-free over the winter.
Q. I make home brewed beer for Christmas. This year's brew had lots of Barley and Hops in it. I've heard that Hops can be used on the allotment to repel the slugs, can I use the brewed Barley in the garden, or will it start to re-germinate?
A. Use the grain in the compost, it will be good for the soil.
Q. How can I improve the soil in a massive raised bed? It's topsoil and there is a dressing of compost but it's very hard to dig. It's a metre high, a metre wide and two metres deep.
A. It's a myth that the deeper the topsoil the better. You need lots of sub soil too. The excessive amount of topsoil you have used has now turned bad. So dig out 400mm of the existing soil and then incorporate lots of organic matter and put some more topsoil above that and feed from above. Or, put the compost on top and let the worms do the work. Bob says put lime on first, and then a few weeks later, put on manure. Bunny recommends using green waste.
Q. Does the panel have any advice on how to save some large shrubs that I will have to move as part of a drastic garden makeover? A contorted Hazel, a Buddleia 'dark night', a huge Fuchsia 'Hawkshead' and a large 'mop-head' Hydrangea are among the shrubs. I've read that root pruning in advance can help.
A. Matthew says yes, do the root pruning now with a sharp spade. Prune back when the plant has been moved. Take cuttings from the shrubs as a backup. Bunny says that if you have a digger at hand, use that to dig up the shrubs.
Bob thinks you should buy new plants.
Q. What are the panel's views on using wood chip in the compost?
A. Bob says mix the chippings with urine, compost and lime so that it breaks down. Don't add too much to the compost heap but use it for paths. Bunny and Matt say you must be careful because it can really affect the PH of the soil.
Q. Any tips on growing Physalis alkekengi 'Chinese Lantern' plants?
A. Plant them in the spring as they have all summer to get their roots down. Choose the plants that look very healthy. They will skeletonise by late winter. You can grow it with Passiflora, 'Passion Flower' as the two look great together. Grow both against the wall to maximise the.
FRI 15:45 Man About the House (b04n6953)
The Parable of the Green House
Three specially commissioned stories that explore men's relationships with their homes:
2. The Parable of the Green House by Jess Walter
Dale hangs around his house, thinking bad things are happening in the yard. He becomes obsessed by this.
Reader: Trevor White
Producer: Duncan Minshull.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (b04nhytv)
Warren Anderson, Acker Bilk, Lord Barnett, Sonia Rolt
Matthew Bannister on
Warren Anderson who was chairman of the Union Carbide chemical company at the time of the Bhopal disaster, which killed more than 2,200 people and injured thousands more.
Acker Bilk, the jazz clarinettist from Somerset best known for his hit "Stranger On The Shore".
The Labour politician Lord Barnett, who came up with the "Barnett formula" to decide on public spending in the different nations of the UK.
And Sonia Rolt, who worked on the canals during the war and then devoted her life to preserving Britain's industrial heritage.
FRI 16:30 Feedback (b04nhytx)
Dramatic storylines and racy relationships are continuing to cause a stir among Archers fans. Now the actor who plays the sausage king Tom Archer has been deposed, some listeners are threatening to switch off altogether.
There were 103 episodes of Hancock's Half Hour recorded in the 1950s. However, 20 episodes are missing from the BBC archives. Now, five of them have been brought back to life in new recordings of the original scripts. Giving a voice to the many voices of Kenneth Williams is actor Robin Sebastian. But which of all Williams's classic characters is his favourite? And what is it about this comedy that makes audiences still laugh sixty years on?
And is the British coverage of German history too focused on conflict? One programme setting out to change this is Neil McGregor's 30 part series 'Germany: Memories of a Nation'. It's been well received by most listeners though some feel repeating it three times a day was a bit much. Commissioning Editor Jane Ellison and the programme's producer Paul Kobrak discuss how and why the series was made.
Produced by Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (b04n6955)
Donna and Zoe - In Their World
Fi Glover with a conversation between a mother whose daughter has Aspergers and her friend whose children are both autistic, who recognise their worlds can be exciting places to be.
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 learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess.
FRI 17:00 PM (b04n6957)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04n23rj)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (b04nhytz)
Series 85
Episode 3
A satirical review of the week's news, chaired by Sandi Toksvig, who is joined by Andrew Maxwell and Andy Hamilton, alongside regular panellist Jeremy Hardy.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (b04n6959)
Jazzer is amazed to hear that Maurice was positive with Johnny after he'd been stood up by Melanie. Miserable Maurice had met his match in cheerful Johnny, not having the heart to tell him the truth about relationships.
As he chats to Carol and Jill, Ian moans about the arrogant shoot crowd ordering him around on Tuesday.
Jill shows Carol the Rodway's sales brochure for Brookfield. Jill has decided to leave the bees behind. Having made up her mind to move, Jill admits the brochure has shaken her up.
Johnny's excited about seeing his mum and Eamon. He also has a date with Molly Button, who Jazzer says will make mincemeat of him. Tony reckons Johnny will make a real go of his course.
Charlie has disappointing news for Adam. Home Farm Contracting has been underperforming, so Borchester Land is not renewing its contract to farm the Estate's arable land. In future, RB Farming will be responsible. Charlie also mentions Debbie and the problem with managing from a distance. Adam criticizes RB's aggressive farming methods, but Charlie focuses on their efficiency.
Charlie feels Adam could benefit from this. He could step out of Debbie's shadow, with the possibility of working for RB. Adam tells him to stuff it.
Later, Charlie texts Adam to say that the offer still stands. In the car, Ian spots the For Sale sign at Brookfield. It's all suddenly becoming very real.
FRI 19:15 Front Row (b04n695f)
Benedict Cumberbatch; Sumia Sukkar; The looting of Syrian Art; Pink Floyd Review
Benedict Cumberbatch talks to John Wilson about his role in The Imitation Game. He plays pioneering computer scientist and Bletchley code breaker Alan Turing.
22-year-old Sumia Sukkar discusses her debut novel The Boy from Aleppo who Painted the War, the story of a teenage boy with Asperger's Syndrome, growing up in Syria which has now been dramatised for Radio 4.
As concerns over the raiding of Syrian artefacts grow, Front Row hears from academics, investigators and Unesco about how objects are making their way onto international art markets and whether anything can be done about it.
And Pink Floyd release a new album, The Endless River. Based on outtakes from their earlier album The Division Bell, it's intended as a tribute to keyboard player Richard Wright who died in 2008. Mark Ellen reviews.
Presenter: John Wilson
Producer: Sarah Johnson.
FRI 19:45 Germany: Memories of a Nation (b04k6tvd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b04n695h)
Diane Abbott MP, Douglas Carswell MP, Dominic Grieve MP, Simon Hughes MP
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion from Newton Abbot in Devon with Labour MP Diane Abbott, the UKIP MP Douglas Carswell, the former Attorney General Dominic Grieve MP, and Justice Minister Simon Hughes MP.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b04n695k)
Capitalism and the Myth of Social Evolution
John Gray reflects on why the advance of capitalism is not - as is widely believed - inevitable. He argues that social evolution is often unpredictable and that the "seemingly unstoppable advance of market forces" could well be halted by political decisions and the "random flux of human events".
Producer: Adele Armstrong.
FRI 21:00 Plants: From Roots to Riches (b04n695m)
Omnibus
Episode 5
Professor Kathy Willis, director of science at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, with the final episodes of her new history of our changing relationship with plants
Kathy Willis examines how the technology that helped map whole genomes in plants and animals was to revolutionise the classification of flowering plants; the evolution of our rainforests as revealed by DNA fingerprinting; plants as essential regulators of our planet's atmospheric carbon and water cycles; how green spaces and ecosystems have a positive effect on our health and well being; the future role of plants as providers of food to feed the planet's growing population.
Producer Adrian Washbourne.
FRI 21:58 Weather (b04n23rl)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b04n695p)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04n695r)
The Restoration of Otto Laird
Episode 10
A story of memory and place, old age and architecture.
"Otto had felt surprisingly nervous on the plane across from Geneva; not from any fear of flying, but a fear of what he was flying to. [...] Throughout the short flight he experienced a strange inner turbulence. He had a queasy sensation that he was re-establishing a connection with the past; flying backwards into his own memories. He would no longer be experiencing them from a distance, but in the city where they had once been real."
Architect Otto Laird has been living a semi-reclusive life with his second wife in Switzerland. But he is forced to re-engage with the wider world when he learns that his landmark building Marlowe House - a 1960s tower block in South London - has been marked for demolition.
Episode Ten
With Otto unconscious, his wife Annika and his son Daniel meet at his hospital bedside.
Nigel Packer lives in London. He has been a music reviewer for BBC News Online and Ceefax, a reporting officer at the International Committee of the Red Cross and a contributor to various magazines and newspapers. The Restoration Of Otto Laird is his first novel.
Reader: Allan Corduner
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 23:00 A Good Read (b04n3384)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (b04n695t)
Mark D'Arcy reports from Westminster.
FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (b04n695w)
Adam and Jayden - A Metaphorical Angel
Fi Glover with a conversation between a 10 year old and his youth worker which ranges from haircuts, through making things and writing poetry, to angels - metaphorical or otherwise.
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 learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess.