SATURDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2014

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (b04p57ny)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SAT 00:30 Book of the Week (b04pc6kw)
Alan Cumming - Not My Father's Son: A Family Memoir

Wrapping Up

Alan Cumming is wrapping up as he concludes his moving memoir about his relationship with his father and a family mystery.

Written and read by Alan Cumming.
Abridged by Sara Davies.

Producer: Elizabeth Allard

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04p57p0)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04p57p2)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at 5.20am.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04p57p4)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (b04p57p6)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04pcd79)
Short reflection and prayer with Glenn Jordan.


SAT 05:45 iPM (b04p57p8)
'We made them smell blue.' iPM hears from a listener and scientist who has made maggots smell the colour blue. Presented by Eddie Mair and Jennifer Tracey. Email iPM@bbc.co.uk.


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (b04p57pb)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SAT 06:04 Weather (b04p57pd)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 06:07 Open Country (b04pc2zj)
Steart Peninsula, Somerset

Felicity Evans visits Steart Marshes on Somerset's Steart Peninsular just as the sea wall is breached to transform this landscape.

Rising sea levels are putting the squeeze on wildlife along the coast and also leaving coastal villages under threat of flooding, but earlier this year, The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (The WWT) and the Environment Agency began the creation of the UK's largest new wetland reserve. The sea wall was purposely breached to create an inter-tidal range that will see the development of salt marsh - a habitat that is currently under threat. As WWT Warden Alys Laver explained, in making the breach, Steart Marshes will create safe habitats for rare species whilst also offering a flood defence for the nearby villages. It will also provide an accessible nature reserve for the local community right on their doorstep.

For PhD student Adam George of the local Bridgwater College, it's a unique opportunity to study the effects - and possible benefits - of salt marsh creation whilst for Steart's dedicated volunteers - including 14 year old Jo - it's a chance to watch a whole landscape change in their lifetime.


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (b04pqxbd)
Farming Today This Week: Sugar

With the sugar beet harvest, or campaign as it's known, currently underway Farming Today This Week explores the British sugar industry. The company, British Sugar, processes all of the UK's sugar beet and works directly with 3,500 farmers. This morning Charlotte Smith is at one of their processing plants in Norfolk. During the campaign a lorry carrying 30 tonnes of sugar beet arrives at the factory, in Wissington, around every 45 seconds. Charlotte finds out how the farmers work with British Sugar and how the sugar beet is processed into the sugar we sprinkle on our cereal.

Sugar production quotas in the EU are set to come to an end in 2017. Farming Today This Week asks British Sugar what will happen to the markets in the run up to the end of the quota system. And with high stocks of sugar on the EU market, farmers will face a 20% cut in the price they're paid for the crop next year. British Sugar will also reduce their production by 20% and has offered farmers a one year contract 'holiday', Anna Hill speaks to a farmer in Suffolk who has taken the company up on this offer.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Lucy Bickerton.


SAT 06:57 Weather (b04p57pg)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 07:00 Today (b04pqz6n)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Thought for the Day and Weather.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (b04pqz6q)
Carrie Grant

Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles are joined by vocal coach, singer and television presenter, Carrie Grant.
Best known for her role as the vocal coach on the hit talent show, Fame Academy, she has also worked on Pop Idol and The One Show, where she conducted 500 viewers in the life-affirming "virtual choir".

Rebecca Root explains how she helps transsexual and transgendered people, like herself, to discover their voice.

The first photographer to capture on film the incomparable Kate Bush - we hear from her brother John Carder Bush on how he rescued the negatives from a skip to make a collection of photographs.

JP Devlin visits a tattoo convention in Bournemouth.

Jockie Reid reveals why he has taken up motorcycling at the age of eighty one.

The palaeobiologist, Dr. Victoria Herridge, on her passion for Ice Age mammals and the trip of a lifetime - to take part in an autopsy of a 40,000 year old woolly mammoth.

And the writer, Jung Chang, chooses her Inheritance Tracks: God Bless the Child, by Billie Holliday and The Sweetest Embrace by Barry Adamson.

**Please send us your questions for wildlife presenter and recent Strictly contestant Steve Backshall for next week's programme via: saturdaylive@bbc.co.uk**

Cathy, by John Carder Bush.

Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang.

Woolly Mammoth: The Autopsy - on Channel 4 on Sunday 23 November at 8pm.


SAT 10:30 The Frequency of Laughter: A History of Radio Comedy (b04pqz6s)
1990-1995

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 fourth edition features Richard Herring and Sarah Smith looking at radio comedy in the early 1990s, when they were both starting out in - Sarah was the producer who gave Richard his first commission. And while Richard and his double-act partner Stewart Lee made names for themselves as writers and performers, writing for On The Hour as well as their own shows such as Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World and Lee & Herring's Fist of Fun, Sarah was forging a reputation as one of the most talented producers around, not only working on Lee & Herring's output but also The League of Gentlemen and The Harpoon. Grace asks them about the atmosphere within the Radio Comedy department and the creative collaboration within it; they share their memories of former Head of Light Entertainment Radio (as it was then called) Jonathan James-Moore; and they talk about their time working on Week Ending, Radio 4's flagship topical sketch show which ran from 1970-1998.

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 ... Richard Herring
Guest ... Sarah Smith
Interviewee ... Armando Iannucci
Interviewee ... Diane Messias

Producers ... Ed Morrish & Alexandra Smith.


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (b04pr06t)
George Parker of the Financial Times looks behind the scenes at Westminster.
What next for Ukip after their Rochester by-election victory? Is there reason to be gloomy about the economic outlook? Two former chancellors give their views. Does Theresa May want to be Conservative leader if the position becomes vacant? And getting politicians to say what they really mean.
The editor is Marie Jessel.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (b04p57pj)
Swimming in Iran

Foreign correspondents. Nick Thorpe on the Russian speakers in Ukraine who want the future of their country linked to western Europe, not to Moscow; Thomas Fessy examines how the Islamist fighters of Boko Haram are extending their operations out of Nigeria into neighbouring Cameroon; Shaimaa Khalil in Karachi on the difficulties and the dangers health workers face trying to convince people to be immunised against polio; Chris Bockman in Montpellier has been learning what an exiled Syrian billionaire has to do with the local rugby club and what's the correct etiquette for an American woman keen for a swim in Iran? Amy Guttman has been finding out.


SAT 12:00 News Summary (b04p57pl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (b04pr06w)
Pensions mis-selling; Another RBS failure; Royal Mail takes action on scam mail.

The insurance industry is accused of underpaying pensions to customers with health problems. More than half of people reaching retirement do not search for the best annuity - a pension for life - on the open market. They stay with their own provider. And it's emerged that as many as half of these customers are not being given the enhanced annuity they should get on grounds of ill health.

RBS and Nat West suffered another IT failure this week - the day after they were fined £56m for a previous outage that left 6.5m customers without access to their bank accounts for many days. Why are these annoying stoppages continuing? And what can the banks or the regulator do about them?

Royal Mail delivery staff are being trained to spot scam mail being sent by fraudsters to vulnerable people. They're working with Trading Standards officers to warn customers who are being targeted by the likes of fake prize draws. And Royal Mail says it is cancelling the contracts of some offending firms.

And we hear how people who invested money in a foreign-exchange trading website have been left stranded after the site suddenly disappeared.


SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (b04pcd57)
Series 85

Episode 5

A satirical review of the week's news, chaired by Sandi Toksvig, who is joined by Susan Calman, Hugo Rifkind and Andy Hamilton, alongside regular panellist Jeremy Hardy.


SAT 12:57 Weather (b04p57pn)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 13:00 News (b04p57pq)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (b04pcd5f)
Louise Bours MEP, Sir Malcolm Bruce MP, Maria Eagle MP, John Hayes MP

Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion from the John Ferneley Academy in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire; with UKIP MEP Louise Bours; Sir Malcolm Bruce MP, the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats; Maria Eagle, Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs; and Transport Minister John Hayes MP.


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (b04p57ps)
UKIP, Band Aid, firefighter retirement, bedroom and mansion taxes

Why are people voting for UKIP? Was its victory this week a temporary protest vote or a long term political shift? Should other parties be more like UKIP or challenge them more robustly?

Does Band Aid 30 paint a patronising or even damaging picture of west Africa? Or is any help against ebola welcome?

Also - Bedroom tax or mansion tax. Are either fair or effective?

And - firefighters have been campaigning against moves to raise their retirement age from 55 to 60. We're living longer and healthier. Can we afford not to push back the pension age?

Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?


SAT 14:30 Saturday Drama (b04pr06y)
The Havana Quartet by Leonardo Padura

Havana Gold

By Leonardo Padura
dramatised by Joy Wilkinson

Lieutenant Conde goes on a trip through his childhood Havana haunts when a young female schoolteacher at his old school is murdered. And could it be that Conde has finally met the woman of his dreams? Dramatisation of the second novel in the Havana Quartet series.

Cast:
Mario Conde ..... Zubin Varla
Rangel ..... David Westhead
Manolo ..... Lanre Malaolu
Josefina ..... Lorna Gayle
Skinny ..... Ben Crowe
Karina ..... Tanya Franks
Caridad ..... Elaine Claxton
Andres ..... Ian Conningham
Dagmar ..... Jane Slavin
Pedro/ Rabbit ..... Monty d'Inverno
Lando ..... Sam Dale
Lazaro ..... Shaun Mason
Red ..... Jude Akuwudike
Jose Luis ..... Paul Heath
Headteacher ..... Michael Bertenshaw

directed by Mary Peate

Leonardo Padura's series, published in English as the Havana Quartet, is set over the course of 1989.

Leonardo Padura is a novelist and journalist who was born in 1955 in Havana where he still lives. He has published a number of short-story collections and literary essays but he is best known internationally for the Havana Quartet series, all featuring Inspector Mario Conde.

In 1998, Padura won the Hammett Prize from the International Association of Crime Writers and in; 2012, he was awarded the National Prize for Literature, Cuba's national literary award.


SAT 15:30 Soul Music (b04p845x)
Series 19

Plaisir d'Amour / Can't Help Falling in Love With You:

In this week's Soul Music Marianne Faithfull recalls the French Love song which went on to inspire Elvis's 60's hit, 'I Can't Help Falling in Love with You'.

'Plaisir d'Amour' is the classical French love song which somehow found its way through 18th century orchestration (Hector Berlioz) and 1960's folk revival, to an unexpected re-invention into the Elvis hit 'I Can't' Help Falling in Love with You'.

It's been recorded by Marianne Faithfull and busked on the streets of Paris by 'The Gruffalo' author Julia Donaldson. It has also touched the lives of former American Military Academy Freshman Andrew Scott and recently married couple Henry (76) and Christine Wallace (82) who fell in love on a moonlit New Year's Eve.

Written in 1784 by Jean-Paul-Égide Martini, Plaisir d'Amour muses on the pleasures and pains of love and was inspired by a poem which appears in Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian's novel 'Célestine'.

For 17 year old Marianne Faithfull it was a song of innocence, recorded in a tiny booth in the old Decca studios whilst happily pregnant with her first child. Meanwhile, author Julia Donaldson and husband Malcolm busked it on the streets of Paris. It was the summer of 1969 and police hid in alleyways, still fearful of students following the 1968 riots.

As the classical French melody was adopted by Elvis and transformed into 'I Can't Help Falling in Love with You', West Point Military Academy Freshman Andrew Scott learnt to pick it's tune on guitar. It's a song that went on to win the heart of his wife of now 20 years. For Henry and Christine Wallace, it summed everything up "It was what I was looking for, someone to share my life and the words 'take my whole life too was in tune with what I wanted'.

Produced By Nicola Humphries.


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (b04pr0xm)
Dame Shirley Bassey; Violinist Kyung Wha Chung; Business woman Karen Blackett OBE

Dame Shirley Bassey, one of the most iconic voices in British music, joins Jane to discuss over sixty years in the music industry and her new album, Hello Like Before.

Karen Blackett of Mediacom has been named Britain's most influential black person - we hear how she became the first business woman to get the title.

A look at how we experience old age, our attitudes, our fears, our hopes.

We talk to Masha Alyokina and Nadya Tolokonnikova from Russian, feminist group Pussy Riot who spent 21 months in jail for their anti-Putin protest;

Plus an exhibition in Liverpool of Child Migrants sent to Canada, Australia and NZ . The CEO of Refuge Sandra Horley and legendary violinist Kyung Wha Chung.

Presented by Jane Garvey
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed.


SAT 17:00 PM (b04p57pv)
Saturday PM

Full coverage of the day's news.


SAT 17:30 The Bottom Line (b04pr0xp)
Upside-down Management

What is the role of a business leader? To tell staff what to do or allow them to decide for themselves? One theory about management is that it should turn itself upside-down and permit those closest to the customer to dictate all sorts of business decisions including pricing, marketing and how to deal with complaints. This programme, first broadcast in 2013, won the Wincott Radio Journalism of the Year Award.

Guests
John Timpson, Chairman Timpson Group
Nikki King, Honorary Chair, Isuzu Truck UK
Sir Gerry Robinson, Chairman Moto Hospitality
Producer : Rosamund Jones.


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b04p57px)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 17:57 Weather (b04p57pz)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04p57q1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (b04pr0xr)
Arthur Smith, Sir Terry Wogan, Patricia Cornwell, Lissa Evans, Kiruna Stamell, Frazey Ford, Sinkane

Clive Anderson is joined by Sir Terry Wogan, Patricia Cornwell, Lissa Evans, Kiruna Stamell and Arthur Smith for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Frazey Ford and Sinkane.

Producer: Sukey Firth.


SAT 19:00 Profile (b04pr1w0)
Grace Mugabe

Grace Mugabe has been an almost silent figure at her husband, Robert Mugabe's side for almost two decades. Now she is starting to flex her own political muscles, which some are interpreting as a bid for the Presidency. But does she have the skill and the support to secure the top job and a Mugabe dynasty? In December she will head Zanu-PF's Women's League which will make her one of the most powerful people in Zimbabwe's governing party. Jo Fidgen questions how much 'soft' power she already has over her husband and whether she makes a credible political leader?


SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (b04p57q3)
Institute of Sexology, What We Do in the Shadows, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Robert Edric, Legacy

London's Wellcome Institute has a new exhibition entitled The Institute of Sexology which it describes as "a candid exploration of the most publicly discussed of private acts". How will our reviewers tiptoe gently around the explicit nature of what's on show?
What We Do In The Shadows is a New Zealand vampire comedy film about a group of bloodsucking flatmates (a 'dracumentary' if you will) - who does the washing-up in the house of the undead?
Behind The Beautiful Forevers is David Hare's new play at London's National Theatre, based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Pulitzer Prize winning author Katherine Boo. It deals with life death and hope in a Mumbai undercity
Robert Edric is an acclaimed British novelist whose latest book explores the life of Branwell Bronte - brother of the more famous sisters - whose life couldn't match theirs.
Legacy is a new Danish TV police programme. What is it about the Scandi Noir genre that keeps on gripping UK audiences?

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Helen Lewis Pat Kane and Amanda Craig. The producer is Oliver Jones.


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (b04pr1w2)
Art School, Smart School

Brian Eno, Grayson Perry and others reflect on the state of the art school.

British art schools have produced some of the world's most successful artists, designers, filmmakers and musicians. Britain has built up a strong reputation for creativity around the world and politicians are interested in capitalising on our creative brand.

Brian Eno was at art school at a particularly exciting time. In the sixties, art colleges were independent and experimental; students were challenged to rethink what art and art education were about. Brian relates his memories of Ipswich College of Art under the radical educationalist Roy Ascot, and reflects on the importance of this experience. But he also sounds a warning note - he says art schools are under huge pressures and the effects are threatening creativity.

This programme brings together artists, musicians, art tutors and archive recordings to explore the last half century of art education and the state of Britain's art schools today.

We hear the perspectives of high profile figures in art and design - Grayson Perry, Richard Wentworth, Eileen Cooper, Peter Kindersley, and Jay Osgerby to name a few.

Britain depends on its art schools if it's to sustain its reputation for creativity. But are art schools becoming too much like universities and excluding those very people who will produce the innovations of the future?

Produced by Isabel Sutton
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 21:00 The Once and Future King (b04p5m1w)
The Sword in the Stone

Brian Sibley's dramatisation of T. H. White's classic retelling of the King Arthur story continues. Wart's remarkable education at the hands of the wizard Merlyn draws to a close.

Original music by Elizabeth Purnell
Directors: Gemma Jenkins, Marc Beeby and David Hunter.


SAT 22:00 News and Weather (b04p57q5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.


SAT 22:15 Moral Maze (b04pbmjv)
The Moral Limits of Advertising

You know Christmas has arrived when there's a furious row about what's on the telly. This year it's about the Sainsbury's advert. It features a recreation of the 1914 Christmas day truce when the Germans and British abandoned their trenches to play football in No Man's land. The fact that it portrays an incredibly sanitised version of the First World War with not a spot of mud, or drop of blood in sight has certainly angered many. But even more questions are being asked about the last scene in the ad. In it the chiselled young Tommy gives his equally handsome German adversary a bar of chocolate and we're left with the message "Christmas is for sharing". The chocolate is of course being sold in Sainsbury stores until Christmas with the money raised going to the Royal British Legion. While many have found it moving it's also attracted a barrage of criticism for cashing in on the collective feeling of remembrance that has been so powerful in this centenary year of WW1. The contrast between this advert and the poppies at the Tower of London couldn't be more profound. Sainsbury say they've partnered with The Royal British Legion to ensure this story is told with authenticity and respect and they hope it will help keep alive the memory of the fallen. And the money raised will be going to a very good cause. But is it still crass and cynical? Are there really some things that money shouldn't buy? Are some things we hold so dear to ourselves, or our collective memories that to monetise them, through advertising or sponsorship, amounts to sacrilege? Or is that just our own moral squeamishness? Would we really be happier if we maintained our moral purity and the British Legion had less money? What are the moral boundaries when it comes to advertising and sponsorship? Presented by David Aaronovitch.

Panellists: Matthew Taylor, Michael Portillo, Claire Fox and Melanie Phillips.

Witnesses: Ally Fogg, Adrian Shaughnessy, Dave Trott and Jon Alexander.

Produced by Phil Pegum.


SAT 23:00 Counterpoint (b04p7yfz)
Series 28

Episode 9

(9/13)
Russell Davies is joined by competitors from Wiltshire, Surrey and the West Midlands in the ninth heat of the general knowledge music quiz.

Up for grabs is the single remaining place in this year's semi-finals, which begin next week. To be in with a chance of winning it, our trio will have to demonstrate the widest possible knowledge of music of all eras, from the core classical repertoire through to rock and pop of the past 50 years.

They will also have to answer questions on a specialist musical subject - the catch being that they must choose their topic on the spot from a list of which they've had no prior warning, and no chance to prepare.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.


SAT 23:30 Dorset Rewritten (b04p5skv)
Before Thomas Hardy, there was another Dorset poet. His name was William Barnes. Scrape a finger across Hardy's Dorset and you'll find Barnes' underneath. Daljit Nagra goes in search of Hardy's friend, forebear and inspiration.

William Barnes was fascinated by language and the dialect used by the people around him. But today he's been all but forgotten. Barnes inspired Hardy, Larkin, and Hopkins yet Britain has never taken him to its heart. Barnes was fascinated by language, obsessed even. He was a polymath. He believed in Pure English and wanted to distil words to their Anglo -Saxon origins; 'photograph' for instance, becomes, 'sun-print'. Curious then that while his poetry is thick with dialect, Barnes spent most of his life teaching English in its conventional form, as a curate and a school master.

A former Poet Laureate, a young teacher from Barnes' Blackmore Vale, and a dialect poet from the Black Country reflect on the curious verse of 'the other' Dorset poet.

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.



SUNDAY 23 NOVEMBER 2014

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b04pr536)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SUN 00:30 A Shepherd in London (b03q59t5)
Flocking to Selfridge's

In the 1920s and 30s, sheep were used in London parks to keep the grass down. Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Clapham Common and Hampstead Heath all had sheep grazing on them, and there was much competition between shepherds to get their flocks chosen for the privilege. There was considerable profit to be made too - for when they were good and fat, the sheep were herded to Smithfield Meat Market to be prepared for the table.

In Flocking to Selfridges, writer Jerome Vincent imagines the experiences of George Donald, a shepherd from Aberdeenshire, who has brought his flock (aided by his faithful sheepdog Birk) to graze in Hyde Park. George is no stranger to the capital, but is always astonished by the way in which Londoners behave, likening the crowds in Oxford Street to mindless flocks of sheep.

It's 1925, and technology is moving on apace. One day in the park, George bumps into a fellow Scot - a young man at the cutting edge of the next new thing. He's John Logie Baird, the inventor of television, and George Donald is able to give him a word of advice.

Reader: Bill Paterson
Producer: David Blount
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04pr538)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04pr53b)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at 5.20am.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04pr53d)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b04pr53g)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b04pr6rg)
The bells of All Saints Church, Allesley.


SUN 05:45 Profile (b04pr1w0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b04pr53l)
The latest national and international news.


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b04pr6rj)
High Flight

Inspired by memories of a childhood visit to the cinema to see Star Wars, Kester Brewin reflects on our yearning to fly - or, in the words of World War Two pilot John Magee, to slip 'the surly bonds of earth, And dance the skies on laughter-silvered wings'.

He talks with the philosopher Simon Critchley and draws on writings from Revelations, Julian Barnes, Clive James and a recently deceased friend.

With music by Arvo Pärt, Bonnie Prince Billy and Jeff Buckley.

Readers: Felicity Finch, Ella Kenion and Sam West.

Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 06:35 Living World (b04pr6rl)
Whooper Swans

When freezing temperatures descend on Iceland, whooper swans migrate south to the Highlands of Scotland where they flock together on wet land, whooping musically to one another in high and low tones. The beauty of the whooper swan has long been revered and over the winter months the Insh Marshes Nature Reserve plays host to this spectacular gathering. Living World presenter Trai Anfield and the RSPB's Catherine Vis-Christie take to the marshes to see how these elegant birds are faring after their long journey to Scottish shores.


SUN 06:57 Weather (b04pr53n)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b04pr53q)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (b04pr6rn)
'Religious war'; Cardinal Vincent Nichols; Gurus

In the aftermath of the attack on a synagogue in West Jerusalem, some politicians have warned against the Israeli-Palestinian conflict developing into a 'religious war'. This week's presenter William Crawley examines the latest wave of violence in the region. We also hear from Cardinal Vincent Nichols who has spent the last week on pilgrimage in the Holy Land.

A Church of England school has been placed into special measures after failing to safeguard pupils from Islamic extremism. Trevor Barnes visits one school which claims to have dealt with a plot to 'radicalise' the curriculum.

The chairman of the Trussell Trust tells Sunday that delays in benefit processing and low wages are resulting in record numbers of people using their foodbanks.

This week saw a deadly stand-off in India between police and supporters of the controversial Hindu guru Rampal, who was arrested in connection with a murder case. We explore the status of gurus and why many command such huge followings.

What can multinational companies learn from the Jesuits about how to do business? Quite a lot, according to an assistant professor at Warwick Business School. We find out why.

We explore the religious themes and resurgence of interest in the song-writing of Jake Thackray, who rose to fame on TV shows including 'The Frost Report' and 'That's Life!'.

And we hear the story of a couple with more than a hundred years of volunteering between them, who are being recognised with a special award from their Bishop on Sunday.

Producers:
Dan Tierney
Zoe Ashworth

Series producer:
Amanda Hancox

Contributors:
Cardinal Vincent Nichols
Dr Wendy Pullan
Dr Jose Bento Da Silva
Chris Mould
Paul Thompson
Soutik Biswas
Alfred and Doreen Whitelock.


SUN 07:55 Radio 4 Appeal (b04pr6rq)
Family Rights Group

Grandmother of five, Chris Leaves, makes the Radio 4 Appeal for Family Rights Group, the charity advising families whose children are involved with, or need children's services. The charity was a lifeline for Chris, when she and her husband took on their two youngest grandchildren, because of problems the children's mother was having. Family Rights Group advises people like Chris, as well as parents, friends or relatives involved in a child's life.
Registered Charity No 1015665
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal, mark the back of the envelope 'Family Rights Group.


SUN 07:57 Weather (b04pr53s)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b04pr53v)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b04pr6rs)
Sung Mattins for the Feast of Christ the King

Sung Mattins for the Feast of Christ the King from Her Majesty's Chapel Royal, St James's Palace. The choir directed by Huw Williams sings music by composers associated with the Chapel and with the Monarchy - Gibbons, Tomkins, Stanford, Britten and Vaughan Williams - and the preacher is the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dr Richard Chartres, Bishop of London and Dean of Her Majesty's Chapels Royal. Producer: Stephen Shipley.


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (b04pcd5h)
Dostoevsky and Dangerous Ideas

John Gray points to lessons from the novels of Dostoevsky about the danger of ideas such as misguided idealism sweeping away tyrannies without regard for the risks of anarchy. "Dostoevsky suggests that the end result of abandoning morality for the sake of an idea of freedom will be a type of tyranny more extreme than any in the past."
Producer: Sheila Cook.


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b04mlvwj)
Asian Crested Ibis

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Chris Packham presents the rare Asian crested Ibis formerly common in Japan and China. The crested ibis is mainly white with a shaggy white crest and a red face; but in the breeding season its plumage is tinged with ash-grey. Under its wings is a subtle peach tone, a colour known in Japan as toki-iro. Unfortunately its beauty hasn't saved the crested ibis from persecution in Japan, China or Siberia where it used to breed. It was thought to be extinct in China, until seven birds were found in 1981. In 2003 the crested ibis became extinct in the wild in Japan. Now, crested ibis are conservation symbols in the Far East. They are strictly protected in China where they are being reintroduced to increase the small wild population. In Japan the first wild Japanese crested ibis chick flew from its nest in 2012.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b04pr6rv)
Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (b04pr6rx)
Contemporary drama in a rural setting.


SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (b04pr6rz)
Rt Hon Theresa May

Kirsty Young's castaway is the Right Honourable Theresa May MP - the longest serving Home Secretary in fifty years.

For those who think her political lineage seems directly descended from the Iron Lady, Theresa May's metal has certainly been stress-tested in the past few weeks. She's apologised twice in parliament for having failed to appoint a suitable head to lead the historical child abuse inquiry; a minister in her department resigned, claiming working with her had been like "walking through mud". Then there has been the controversy over the non-vote on the European Arrest Warrant and finally news this week that 1 in 5 crimes are unrecorded.

Just as well that she has a reputation as a woman who knows her own mind and is willing to speak it. She famously said the Conservatives were perceived as the 'nasty party'. Her excoriating speech to the Police Federation dealt head on with long-term corruption and incompetence in their ranks and was received with stunned silence.

So unflinching, resilient, driven and, if a recent poll is to be believed, a popular choice among Conservative voters to be the next Prime Minister. She has, so far, remained tight-lipped on any ambition to lead her party.

She says, "I think you have to believe in what you're doing - that's key. If you do believe you are doing the right thing - that gives you resilience".


SUN 12:00 News Summary (b04pr53x)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b04p7yg7)
Series 62

Episode 1

The 62nd series of Radio 4's multi award-winning 'antidote to panel games' promises yet more quality, desk-based entertainment for all the family. The series starts its run at the Richmond Theatre where regulars Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by Jo Brand, with Jack Dee as the programme's reluctant chairman. Regular listeners will know to expect inspired nonsense, pointless revelry and Colin Sell at the piano.

Producer - Jon Naismith.


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (b04pr6x4)
Get Ahead Treats for Christmas

Sheila Dillon invites Diana Henry to provide a guide to an Eastern Christmas. With experts Bee Wilson and Sally Butcher on hand, Diana looks at 'get ahead' treats, and finds out why certain foods from the east feature so prominently at Christmas.

They also explore some of the symbolism of 'exotic' food stuffs like dates and pomegranates that have become so much part and parcel of the Christmas feast. All of the recipes are featured on The Food Programme website.

Producer: Sarah Langan.


SUN 12:57 Weather (b04pr53z)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b04pr6x6)
Global news and analysis; presented by Mark Mardell.


SUN 13:30 Hardeep's Sunday Lunch (b04pr7jw)
Series 3

Crime, Gangs and Food

Hardeep Singh Kohli meets the woman who broke-up a notorious South London gang through the power of faith, food and motherly love. In 2006 Pastor Mimi Asher discovered that her 13 year-old-son Michael had joined Brixton's "Organised Crime" gang. Violence was spiralling out-of-control on her estate, a crime-ridden no-go area nicknamed "Baghdad" and she feared a bleak outcome for her son. The journey that followed is an extraordinary story and it's a one Hardeep unravels as he arrives in Brixton to cook Punjabi goat curry for Pastor Mimi, her son Michael Adusei and former gang leader Karl Lokko.

Producer: Catherine Earlam.


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b04pcd4v)
Norwich

Peter Gibbs chairs the horticultural panel programme from Norwich. Matt Biggs, Bob Flowerdew and Matthew Wilson join him to answer questions from the audience. Peter delves into the John Innes archives and learns all about the man behind the compost. We hear Bob's topical tips and take a tour of his garden.

Produced by Darby Dorras
Assistant Producer: Hannah Newton

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4

This week's questions and answers:

Q. How do we maximize our yield of squashes? We have dry, sandy soil and get lots of male flowers and two or three squashes on each plant if we're lucky.

A. The soil isn't right for growing squashes, so dig a hole and fill it with all the compost and manure you can get your hands on. Then cover it with a black plastic sheet over the top to keep the moisture in. Water it heavily. Alternatively, get an old builders' bag and fill it with compost and grow the plants in there. This will be easier than digging the dry soil. Try the 'Crown Prince' variety as it stores very well. Butternut Squash is also a good variety. Keep the male flowers on.

Q. Does the panel advise keeping heads on Hydrangeas in the winter or not?

A. Leave some of them on and cut some of them off. This will provide some protection for the buds below and it also looks attractive. However, if you leave them on too long they can break; so cut them in the spring.

Q. What is likely to look best in spring for an open garden? I have a sunny garden with soil that is a mix of clay and loam.

A. Think about reliable plants with long flowering periods. Try Lavender, Flocks, shrub Roses and make sure your lawn is mown to perfection and your edges are cut. Brush the paths down and rake the soil.

Q. Can I make my own bulb fibre?

A. It would be difficult to make your own as Sphagnum moss is hard to come by. Leaf mould would be a good substitute - you could sterilize it in the oven first. Don't use multi-purpose compost as the fertilizer can damage the roots; if anything, use a mix of seed compost, peat-free potting compost and charcoal. If you're only going to use the bulbs once, you can grow them in any inert, moisture-retaining substance such as gels or old clothes.

Q. What variety of fruit bushes would the panel suggest for an east-facing fence and a west-facing wall? The soil is poor.

A. You'll need to get loads of organic matter in, even grow in containers or a raised bed. In the east-facing spot, Red Currents, Culinary Cherries and Gooseberries would grow well. On the west-facing wall have a go at Apricots or Peaches. Grow the plants up against the wall. You could also try figs on the west-facing wall, as they don't need good soil. Also try a grapevine - the newer varieties such as Boskoop Glory and Siegerrebe would grow well.

Q. What would the panel suggest I plant for a light, spreading canopy that will provide shade in the summer? I'd prefer a deciduous tree that wasn't too imposing. The proposed planting area is small.

A. Try a Sorbus cashmiriana but be wary about putting in a tree where another tree has just been removed. Try growing climbing Roses, a Jasmine or a Honey Suckle over a trellis and until these get going put in Sweet Peas or Nasturtiums for shade in the summer.

Q. The leaves of my Streptocarpus (Cape Primrose) are growing to a size that is out of proportion with the plant. What is happening?

A. The plant is in too shady a position and is being fed too much.

Q. If you were to have your first allotment, what would be your first big purchase?

A. Bob suggests a greenhouse, cold frame or polytunnel. Matt Biggs suggests a steel fork and Matthew Wilson suggests luxury spa weekends booked throughout the year to recover from all the hard work!


SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (b04pr7jy)
Sunday Omnibus: Karen and Nicole

Fi Glover introduces three excerpts from one of the last conversations a mother dying from cancer will have with her adult daughter.

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 The Once and Future King (b04pr7k0)
The Queen of Air and Darkness

Brian Sibley's dramatisation of T. H. White's classic retelling of the King Arthur story continues. Rebels led by King Lot and Queen Morgause of Orkney challenge Arthur's claim to the throne. As war draws nearer, darker more personal motives for bringing Arthur down emerge.

Other parts are played by members of the cast.

Original music by Elizabeth Purnell
Directors: Gemma Jenkins, Marc Beeby and David Hunter.


SUN 16:00 Open Book (b04pr9hy)
Mirza Waheed on The Book of Gold Leaves

Mirza Waheed is a Kashmiri novelist whose new book, The Book of Gold Leaves, is a Romeo and Juliet style love story set in war-torn 1990s Srinigar. He talks to Mariella about whether he feels a responsibility to write about his home country and the conflict there. Also on the programme, vampire chronicler Anne Rice reveals the book she'd never lend and why it informs her work. And the novelist Tessa Hadley and Dr Sarah Dillon discuss the joys of forensic dissection of texts as we begin a new series: Close Reading - examining how great writing works.


SUN 16:30 Woods Beyond a Cornfield (b04prbfc)
A beautiful, dark poem by Stanley Cook - a Yorkshireman - about events in the edgelands where he grew up. It evokes the translucent beauty of South Yorkshire and its harshness - especially the inhabitants' hard working lives. Threaded through it is the murder of a local girl who, "lost for something to do", plays truant one day, only to be killed by a local man.

Cook couldn't abide poverty being romanticised. He cared about people who suffered hardship and returned home from his Oxford scholarship with clear-sighted passion. He has influenced Yorkshire writers including his publisher, Peter Sansom of the Poetry Business in Sheffield, who was mentored and taught by Cook.

Liz White (Chrysothemis in Electra at the Old Vic and star of TV's Our Zoo and Life on Mars), Richard Stacey (Alan Ayckbourn regular), young Ruby-May Martinwood and the folk musician and political activist, Ray Hearne, read Stanley Cook's heartfelt poem - with a soundtrack recorded in South Yorkshire through the Autumn.

Produced by Frances Byrnes
A Rockethouse production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 17:00 File on 4 (b04p86c4)
Continuing Healthcare: The Secret Fund

Is demand for long term nursing about to tip NHS finances over the edge?

Under the system of "Continuing Healthcare" people with complex medical needs can claim the costs of nursing and medical help to keep them out of hospital. But the system has become mired in controversy with many people claiming they've been denied funding to which they are entitled.

Now there's a deluge of backdated claims against Clinical Commissioning Groups.

File on 4 finds the backlog is creating long delays in new assessments of patients.

And it hears claims the assessments themselves are a postcode lottery, with the chances of being deemed eligible varying wildly between GP commissioning groups.

The programme also hears evidence of NHS commissioners and councils fighting each other not to take responsibility for patients.

Patients and their families are going to the health ombudsman in their hundreds.

18 clinical commissioning groups are already going to end the year in the red, with some threatened with being put in special measures over their finances. Now they owe millions of pounds in backdated claims, plus interest.

Is this creating an incentive to squeeze spending on continuing care? GP commissioners are about to be asked to put £1.9 billion into the pot for new joined-up health and social care services. Do they have the money, or the will, to buy into joined-up care?

Reporter: Jane Deith Producer: Nicola Dowling.


SUN 17:40 Profile (b04pr1w0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b04pr541)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 17:57 Weather (b04pr543)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04pr545)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b04prbff)
This week we have Mother Courage in various guises, from the mum who took on a South London gang with love - and apple crumble, to Karen in The Listening Project reassuring her daughter that all will be well when she's gone. A scorching performance by Sorcha Cusack desperately holding house and home together in Juno and the Paycock. We eavesdrop on the poignant final meeting of the Normandy Veterans Association, and the sweetest proposal between Henry and Christine for whom the lyrics, 'take my hand, take my whole life too' have a whole new meaning when your combined age is 158.


SUN 19:00 The Archers (b04prbfh)
Ruth updates Eddie and Emma on Tony's condition. He's developed a pulmonary embolism and is not out of the woods yet. Eddie feels that where there's life, there's hope.

Emma's so proud of brave Ed, who helped save Tony's life, but Ed is still in a state. He had a terrible nightmare last night. Emma wants to show Ed how much she loves him. Eddie knows that more than anything Ed wants Emma and the kids to have a home of their own. He suggests asking Will to rent them 1, The Green, maybe for a reduced 'family' rate.

David and Ruth mull over Damara's huge offer for Brookfield. Jill's worried about what Damara might do with the farm, but David says they have no control over what anyone does once it's sold. If Justin really wants it, he will get it in the end whatever they do.

Jill goes out with David to check the sheep on Lakey Hill, and they stop for a breather. Jill says she never tires of this view, but feels she's had her time. David must think about the future and his family. Whatever they decide will be the right choice. David and Ruth agree they should take the offer seriously.


SUN 19:15 Hal (b04pr6sy)
Series 1

Death

Hal Cruttenden stars as a 40-something husband and father who, years ago, decided to give up his job and become a stay at home father. His wife, Sam, has a successful business career which makes her travel more and more. His children, Lilly and Molly, are growing up fast, and his role as their father and mentor is diminishing by the day.

Written by Hal Cruttenden and Dominic Holland.

With Dominic Holland, Ed Byrne, Anna Crilly, Gavin Webster, Dominic Frisby and Samuel Caseley.

In this episode, Hal faces a horrifying thought - he might have testicular cancer. So he tries to look mortality in the face - not easy for an overly sensitive and emotional man. He tries to bond with his entrepreneurial stepson Jack, but a visit to a football match doesn't work out as Hal planned.

An unlikely form of salvation arrives when it's suggested that Hal takes part in a charity run. Things take an unexpected turn and Hal actually surprises himself - but not in the way he planned.

Producer: Paul Russell

An Open Mike production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in November 2014.


SUN 19:45 Grounded (b04prbfk)
Dreamland, by Fred D'Aguiar

A series of specially commissioned stories - each taking our relationship with the land beneath our feet as a starting point. In 'Dreamland' by the Guyanese writer Fred D'Aguiar, the lack of land and the craving for space is the driving force which is overwhelmed by the events of the story.

Read by David Ajao

Commissioned for radio by Ellah Allfrey

Directed by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 20:00 Feedback (b04pcd51)
Since August, listeners to Radio 4's You and Yours have had their daily diet of consumer and social affairs cut by 12 minutes - in the first place to make way for the opening salvoes of Radio 4's 600-part World War 1 drama Home Front. Since then a number of mixed programmes have occupied the slot - with mixed responses from Feedback listeners. Are these bite-size portions the future of radio? The Commissioning Editor, Mohit Bakaya, explains his thinking for the future of the slot.

How does the BBC gauge the views of the silent majority who never make direct contact with the BBC or Feedback? Elizabeth Lane, Research Manager for Radio 4 and 4 Extra, has the answers.
As he grows a beard and takes on the bushtucker trial, is Michael Buerk living up to his surname down under? And do his reality TV antics really deserve a nightly slot on Radio 4?

Catch-up radio on the BBC's TV iPlayer becomes even harder to access for some listeners. First it was lost from smart televisions and now it's no longer available on TV set top boxes. So what's going on - and when will the service return to normal?

And comedian Jake Yapp gives us his version of Feedback in 60 seconds.

Produced by Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
Kashmiri novelist Mirza Waheed talks to Mariella Frostrup about his new novel The Book of Gold Leaves which is a love story set against the backdrop of war.


SUN 20:30 Last Word (b04pcd4z)
Sir Thomas Macpherson, Mike Nichols, Alexander Grothendieck, Paul Vaughan, Leonore Davidoff and Jimmy Ruffin

Matthew Bannister on

Sir Tommy Macpherson who won the Military Cross three times during the war for daring exploits which included bluffing thousands of German troops into surrendering.

The film and stage director Mike Nichols who brought us Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate and the Monty Python musical Spamalot.

Alexander Grothendieck - described by Le Monde newspaper as "the greatest mathematician of the 20th century"

Paul Vaughan, the long serving presenter of Radio 4's arts programme Kaleidoscope and the voice of the TV science series Horizon.

And the feminist historian and sociologist Leonore Davidoff who put class and gender relations at the heart of her work. Her studies advanced the understanding of women's history and she was the founding editor of the journal Gender and History.


SUN 21:00 Money Box (b04pr06w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b04pr6rq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:55 today]


SUN 21:30 Analysis (b04p7ygh)
Precedents or Principles?

We firmly believe that our choices - about what we eat and how we vote - reflect the inner core of our being. But do those choices originate in principle - or simply because of what we have done in the past? Psychologist Nick Chater asks if precedent matters more than principles and discovers a complex interplay between the two forces which govern the choices we make.
Producer: Simon Coates.


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b04pr547)
Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.


SUN 22:45 What the Papers Say (b04prbm7)
Agnes Poirier analyses how the newspapers are covering the biggest stories.


SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (b04pc2zl)
Julianne Moore on Mockingjay part 1, Randall Wright on Hockney and the men behind The Lego Movie

Francine Stock talks to Julianne Moore about her role in the new HUNGER GAMES movie, MOCKINGJAY Part 1. The Director Randall Wright shares his experience of working with and making a film documentary about David Hockney and continuing The Story Of The Sound Effect series, Randy Thom talks about the importance of alien sound in CONTACT.
And with news of an extended Franchise Francine talks to Chris Miller and Phil Lord, the directors of THE LEGO MOVIE, about the success of their film, the trick of appealing to both young and old audiences and their childhood triumphs as master builders of spaceships made from plastic bricks.


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b04pr6rj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]



MONDAY 24 NOVEMBER 2014

MON 00:00 Midnight News (b04pr55b)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (b04pbmjj)
Shoes - Islamic Youth Culture in Western Europe

Shoes - a journey through our lives and identities. From 'brothel creepers' to perilous stilettos, our choice of footwear changes and evolves over a life time. Laurie Taylor talks to Victoria Robinson, Reader in Sociology at the University of Sheffield, about the ways in which shoes can, variously, plunge us back into the past or inform the present. Whether worn for comfort or glamour, they are powerful indicators of taste and identity. Also, Maruta Herding, a sociologist at the German Youth Institute, discusses her Europe wide research into Muslim youth, subcultures. She's joined by Tufyal Choudhury lecturer in law at the University of Durham.

Producer: Jayne Egerton.


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b04pr6rg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04pr55d)
The latest shipping forecast.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04pr55g)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04pr55j)
The latest shipping forecast.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (b04pr55l)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04prcs8)
Short reflection and prayer with Glenn Jordan.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (b04prcsb)
Farm energy, Farm secretaries, Next generation

Farmers could be supplying more low-carbon power, according to a report from the Farm Power Coalition. The coalition is made up of farming groups, businesses and non-governmental organisations, and it estimates that there are significant untapped resources across UK farms to produce low-carbon power. The report claims around ten gigawats - that's equivalent to more than three times the capacity of the proposed new nuclear power plant at Hinkley - could be produced on farms. But how do we balance that with the need to produce food? Charlotte Smith finds out.

Farm secretaries play a vital role in keeping farms' paperwork up to date, but the Institute of Agricultural Secretaries and Administrators says finding new recruits is getting harder. Anna Hill's been to meet a group of farm secretaries in Suffolk who were attending a special briefing on how reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy will change the work they do.

And what opportunities will agriculture bring for the next generation? Farming Today starts a week-long look at the farmers of the future.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Emma Campbell.


MON 05:56 Weather (b04pr55n)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04mlvyv)
Red-billed Tropicbird

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Chris Packham presents a true global ocean going mariner, the red-billed tropicbird. These elegant birds are masters of the winds and tides. There are three species of tropicbirds and all of them nest on tropical islands, spending the rest of the year roaming the open ocean. All are instantly recognisable by their very long whippy central tail-feathers which can be longer than the rest of the bird. With scarlet beaks, black wing-tips and white-tail streamers from a distance they look all-white, but a closer view reveals a narrow black mask. Red-billed Tropicbirds nest on the ground and use their impossibly long tails in courtship displays, moving the feathers to register excitement or aggression. In flight they are graceful soarers and swoopers, and often call a trill chattering rattle in mid-air chases. This sound which resembles a bosun's (boatswain's) whistle, gave rise to their alternative name of 'Bosun Bird'.


MON 06:00 Today (b04prcsd)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (b04prcsg)
Science Fiction

Tom Sutcliffe explores our relationship with computer technology and the interplay of alien and familiar in science fiction. Tom's joined in the studio by writer William Gibson, novelist Michel Faber, LSE Professor Judy Wajcman and historian Dominic Sandbrook. How have computer technologies transformed our sense of outer space, cyber space and our own inner space?

Producer: Simon Tillotson.


MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b04prh8v)
My Life in Houses

I Was a Lucky Girl

I was born on May 25, 1938, in the front bedroom of a house in Orton Road, on the outer edges of Raffles, a council estate. I was a lucky girl.'

So begins Margaret Forster's journey through the houses she's lived in, from the sparkling new council house, built as part of a utopian vision by Carlisle City Council, to her beloved London house of today, via Oxford, Hampstead and the Lake District. Forster's houses aren't just bricks and mortar, but homes which have all meant something to her and which have all had a profound effect on her - from her writer's 'room of one's own', to the family hub and finally a sanctuary in times of illness. It is also a sideways look at the life of one of the greatest contemporary British novelists.

Born in Carlisle, Margaret Forster is the author of many successful and acclaimed novels, including Have the Men Had Enough?, Lady's Maid, Diary of an Ordinary Woman, Is There Anything You Want?, Keeping the World Away, and Over, bestselling memoirs (Hidden Lives and Precious Lives) and biographies. She is married to writer and journalist Hunter Davies and lives in London and the Lake District.

Read by Sian Thomas.

Writer: Margaret Forster
Abridger: Sally Marmion

Producer: Justine Willett

First broadcast on BBC Radio in November 2014.


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04prh8x)
Listener Week: Porn, 50:50 Childcare

Do black, Asian and minority ethnic women get a fair deal in the media? The effect of porn on a relationship. Does 50:50 childcare work as well for children as it can for parents? We hear from Paula McGuire from Glasgow who set herself a series of sporting challenges and found they boosted her confidence in ways she could never have imagined. And a listener asks for advice: should I get back in touch with an ex?

Presented by Jane Garvey
Produced by Jane Thurlow.


MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b04prh8z)
Syria: Bread and Bombs

Episode 1

Black comedy by Tina Pepler.

Hassan, Jamil and Samara are taking the hazardous journey through Turkey across the Syrian border with a convoy of lorries loaded with nappies, baby milk and food parcels.

But there's tension in the group of aid workers. Jamil is old school and likes to do things by the book. Hassan is a maverick, used to doing things his own way and getting his own way. And Samara has brought her puppets along..

Director...Mary Ward-Lowery.


MON 11:00 Lives in a Landscape (b04prh91)
Series 18

The Horses of Holme Wood

Bradford Council regularly monitors horse numbers on its Holme Wood estate, with workers and police carrying out late night raids to round them up. Alan Dein meets the animal owners and explores their bitter battle with the council as they tether horses in parks, alleys and even their own gardens.

Gaz has tried dogs, cats and guinea pigs. Last week when his seven kids wanted a new pet he picked up a £50 horse form a mate on the street. The horse is now in his back garden and during the day he risks the council's wrath by moving it into the park outside his home. It is a huge council estate but his home is let by a private landlord and although he has no income he's asking that landlord if he can build a stables for Sausage in his garden! The estate is literally teeming with horses and no one bats an eyelid at one more joining their ranks.

Across the road Pip is engaged in a game of cat and mouse with council officials as he tries to hide his horses. Eviction notices have been served on his parents and he's received an anti-social behaviour order for having horses loose on the estate. His Mum won't have him back home after a bitter argument which ended with the police being called. He's now homeless and out of school.

And then there's nine year old Holly Leigh who has long dreamed of owning a horse. That dream has just come true and Billy is now in the garden of her small council home.

The Holme Wood estate is home to about 10,000 people and pets of all variety, from horses to pigs, snakes, lizards and monkeys. But it's the horses that are causing the problems...

Producer: Sue Mitchell.


MON 11:30 Start/Stop (b04prh93)
Series 2

Pregnancy

Hit comedy about three marriages in various states of disrepair.

In this week's episode Cathy reveals to a shocked Barney that she is pregnant. Fiona suggests to a shocked Evan that he get a vasectomy. And David suggests to a shocked Alice that they adopt.

Barney ...... Jack Docherty
Cathy ...... Kerry Godliman
Evan ...... John Thomson
Fiona ...... Fiona Allen
David ...... Charlie Higson
Alice ...... Sally Bretton

Producer ..... Claire Jones

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.


MON 12:00 News Summary (b04pr55q)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 A History of Ideas (b04prhq3)
How Can I Tell Right From Wrong?

A new history of ideas presented by Melvyn Bragg but told in many voices.

Melvyn is joined by four guests with different backgrounds to discuss a really big question. This week the question is 'How do I tell wrong from right?'

Helping him answer it are Neuro-psychologst Paul Broks, Philosopher Angie Hobbs, Theologian Giles Fraser and Lawyer Harry Potter.

For the rest of the week Paul, Angie, Giles and Harry will take us further into the history of ideas about morality with programmes of their own.

Between them they will examine the idea of conscience and moral intuitions, the relationship between morality and the law, whether moral systems can work on the battlefield and what the brain seems to do when we are making moral decisions.


MON 12:15 You and Yours (b04prhq5)
Horses on Housing Estates; The UK Bicycle Industry; Unlimited 3G

Some mobile phone customers are being misled into taking out contracts which leave them with no internet service. We investigate how some "unlimited" services and not what they seem.
The RSPCA is concerned about the health of horses kept in gardens on housing estates and is working with local communities to make sure they're being properly looked after.
Chances are if you owned a bike before the 1980s, it was a British made. The UK was once the innovation and manufacturing hub of the cycling world. But what's the current state of the industry?
If you drive an electric car in London you're probably having difficulties getting from one side of the capital to the other. Despite millions of pounds in government grants, we report on why nearly a third of charging points are faulty.

Presenter: Shari Vahl
Producer: Samantha Fenwick.


MON 12:57 Weather (b04pr55s)
The latest weather forecast.


MON 13:00 World at One (b04prhzq)
Analysis of current affairs reports, presented by Martha Kearney.


MON 13:45 Terror Through Time (b04prhzs)
Mossad: The Wrath of God

"Perception is power" says one former head of Mossad. If that's true, then Israel's international spy agency is very powerful indeed.

When the planes struck the twin towers in 2001, it was Mossad that the world's security agencies turned to, drawing on their decades of experience in fighting terrorism. Their reputation is based upon the drama and daring of the operations they mount. From the Wrath of God campaign against the Palestinians suspected of planning the Munich Olympics massacre to the assassination plots against prominent figures in Hamas and Hezbollah, Mossad attacks have regularly made headline news. Even when their operations go disastrously wrong, killing innocent people or leading to the arrest of their agents, they still serve to strike fear in the enemies of Israel.

In the first episode of ten examining the world of terrorism in the run-up to 9/11, Fergal Keane asks if the reputation of Mossad has been a help or a hindrance to peace in the Middle East. Has the agency's ruthlessness destroyed the efforts of moderate voices on both sides or stopped the worst perpetrators of violence in their tracks?

Fergal is joined by the author of a new history of Mossad, Ronan Bergman, by Palestinian activist and victim of a Mossad attack, Bassam Abu Sharif and by ex-Mossad chiefs, Shabtai Shavit and Efraim Halevy.

Producer: Alasdair Cross.


MON 14:00 The Archers (b04prbfh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Drama (b01rg1gr)
Lost in Mexico

Episode 1

Part 1 (of 2)

British backpackers, Rachel (Olivia Darnley) and Sally (Lucy May Barker) falsely claim they have been robbed in order to get a pay-out from their travel insurance when they get home.

Unfortunately, they get caught out when the Mexican police decide to go back to their hotel and search their room. Charged and arrested for insurance fraud, unable to speak Spanish, the girls are sucked into the vortex of the Mexican penal system.

It's a life-changing experience that tests their friendship to the limit, in this two-part coming-of-age drama by Ingeborg Topsøe, recorded in Mexico.

Written by Ingeborg Topsøe

Casting: Marilyn Johnson and David Psalmon
Script Editor: Mike Walker
Sound Design: Steve Bond and Rodrigo Hernández Cruz
Production manager in Mexico: David Psalmon, assisted by Patricia Madrid

Producer: Nadir Khan

Directed by John Dryden

A Goldhawk Production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 15:00 Counterpoint (b04prj0x)
Series 28

Semi-Final 1, 2014

(10/13)
Paul Gambaccini is back in the questionmaster's chair as the 2014 season of the annual music quiz reaches the semi-final stage. Three heats winners from earlier in the series return to compete for a coveted place in the Counterpoint Final.

The competition may get stiffer but the rules don't change: and each of the semi-finalists will have to choose a special musical topic on which to answer individual questions, with no prior warning of what the subjects are going to be.

This week's contestants are from the London area and from Derbyshire.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (b04pr6x4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 The Still Life Poet (b04ps15k)
Scotland's National Poet, Liz Lochhead, came across one poem of Soutar's that gave her the shivers, but she knows very little about the man and the rest of his work.

William Soutar produced many collections of poetry, most of which he wrote in one room and in what was to become his deathbed. Soutar had developed a debilitating condition of the spine which paralysed him from the waist down. Unable to move and with only a window to see the world, he became a Still Life Poet.

In his final years, Soutar wrote diaries which show a man with a wicked sense of humour, caricaturising his numerous bed side visitors and turning his ailments into playful rhymes. We also discover a mind that dissects everything from war, religion, sex and mortality, through to the songs sung by the blackbirds outside his window.

William Soutar was arguably one of Scotland's greatest poets and a key figure of the Scottish Literary Renaissance but why has his name been buried?

Liz Lochhead travels to the Soutar house in his hometown of Perth to find out and to assess how this sense of place, along with his disability, shaped his writing with the help of people who believe his name and work should be remembered.

Readings by Monty d'Inverno

Produced by Emily Smallman.


MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (b04ps15m)
Avatars

The word "Avatar" was not conceived by a Hollywood film producer but comes from the Sanskrit word for "descent". It relates to when a deity manifests in an earthly embodiment. In Christianity "incarnation" describes the coming of the divine in bodily form to the world in which we inhabit. Does this make Jesus an "Avatar"? Some Hindu's believe so. In this programme Ernie Rea explores the parallels and distinctions between the two and, as new technologies offer the prospect of digital "Avatars" able to simulate our personalities in the online world after death, discusses what such developments tell us about contemporary attitudes to life-after-death and immortality.

Joining Ernie Rea to discuss the theology and digital reinvention of "Avatars" are Dr Chetna Kang, Hindu priest and psychiatrist, David Law Professor of Christian Thought and Philosophical Theology, and Dr John Troyer, Deputy Director of the Centre of Death and Society at the University of Bath.

Producer: Catherine Earlam.


MON 17:00 PM (b04ps15p)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04pr55x)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b04ps15r)
Series 62

Episode 2

The 62nd series of Radio 4's multi award-winning antidote to panel games promises more homespun wireless entertainment for the young at heart. This week the programme pays a return visit to the Richmond Theatre. Regulars Graeme Garden, Barry Cryer and Tim Brooke-Taylor are once again joined on the panel by Jo Brand with Jack Dee in the chair. At the piano - Colin Sell.

Producer - Jon Naismith.


MON 19:00 The Archers (b04ps15t)
Rob gets up early as he's so busy helping at Bridge Farm before doing a proper day's work. He tells grateful Helen to stay in bed. He'll see to Henry.

Jennifer has contacted Anna Tregorran (Carol's daughter) asking to meet up, but got a dismissive email reply. But she's seeing Richard Grenville (Anna's brother, Carol's son from her first marriage) on Wednesday.

Rob works with Johnny on the farm and is a bit patronizing. Still upset over Tony's accident, Johnny's determined to do things the way Tony showed him. Johnny's stubbornness irritates Rob. But when he speaks to Oliver, Rob acknowledges that Johnny's clearly shaken up. Rob describes Johnny as more of a doer than a thinker.

Oliver's relieved there'll be no action taken against the hunt. A sabs video handily showed the huntsman controlling things properly.

To Jennifer's surprise, Charlie persuades Adam is persuaded to meet him and RB Farming's area manager Todd Foster tomorrow. Charlie hopes Adam will revise his opinion and agree to work for RB. Adam says there's one saving grace. When they get hold of Brookfield, he can kiss goodbye to the lot of them. They'll be masters of their own destiny.


MON 19:15 Front Row (b04ps15w)
Jude Law; David Guetta; Post Pop at the Saatchi Gallery

Samira Ahmed with Jude Law, who discusses how playing Henry V on stage inspired his role as a desperate, out of work submarine captain searching for Nazi gold in his new film Black Sea.

The French DJ and record producer David Guetta discusses his latest album Listen, featuring the vocal talents of Emeli Sandé, Sam Martin, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Nicki Minaj, and explains why he has never felt inspired by French Music.

A new exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London, Post Pop: East Meets West, explores how pop art has had a powerful and lasting influence on artists around the world from the United States to China.

And Catherine Bray reviews Stations of the Cross, a German film about a teenage girl raised in a strict religious family, which is filmed in fourteen long takes.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Olivia Skinner.


MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b04prh8z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


MON 20:00 The Meaning of Mongol (b04ps15y)
Imagine your nationality was used by people all around the world to describe someone with a learning disability or a stupid person. That's what happened to Uuganaa Ramsay. A Mongol, born and brought up on the Mongolian steppe, living in a yurt and herding goats, she came to live in the UK and when her son Billy was diagnosed, she realised that the word mongol meant someone with Down's Syndrome. Insult was added to injury when she discovered derivatives of mongol such as mong, are used as a term of abuse meaning an idiot.

Uuganaa wants to know how this happened. Searching for answers she explores the life of John Langdon Down, who initially diagnosed Down's Syndrome as mongolian idiocy, and discovers how the term travelled the world. Did anyone do anything about it, she wonders, and why and when was the term finally changed.

Just as mongol fizzled out of common parlance, new forms of the word, meaning both Down's Syndrome and idiot, became more popular, and are still more acceptable today than derogatory words referring to race or sexuality, revealing worrying social attitudes towards disability.

Having lost her child, and her clear sense of identity, Uuganaa returns to Mongolia to see what Mongols think of these different meanings of the word, and ultimately reconnects with the true meaning of Mongol she grew up with.


MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (b04pbqq9)
Hunting the Taliban

Mobeen Azhar reports from Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, where police are at war with the Taliban. Given rare access to the work of the police by a Senior Superintendent in Karachi's Criminal Investigation Department, Mobeen joins officers on a night time raid in search of the men who train suicide bombers. He meets a suspect in custody who brags about planting bombs and describes how he urges teenage boys to sacrifice their lives in violent jihad. Mobeen also talks to a businessman who was kidnapped for ransom and meets the families of police officers who have been killed by the militants.
Assassinations linked to political parties have blighted the city for over a decade but today, more than 70 groups representing the militant Taliban are also fighting for control. This guerrilla war, once confined to the tribal belt of Waziristan has moved into Karachi with devastating results.


MON 21:00 Shared Planet (b04p80gy)
Mangroves - Putting Nature Back?

Monty Don will be posing to experts who specialise in large scale restoration projects, like the Can Gio mangrove in Vietnam which was destroyed by Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, whether a restored mangrove forest can ever be the same as the original.. Some argue that we could never hope to reproduce what we destroyed, but as long as what we create functions and is biodiverse, then that is all that matters. Others say that in our fast changing world there is no permanence and our best strategy is to build in resilience for the future. Difficult, fascinating problems that raise many questions about our understanding of nature and wilderness.


MON 21:30 Start the Week (b04prcsg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 21:58 Weather (b04pr55z)
The latest weather forecast.


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b04ps3bj)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04ps3bl)
In Love and War

Episode 1

"[He] unfolds a portrait of himself in gouache [...] It is a good likeness, he thinks, if a little tragic, and big-eared. She has drawn a man - given him something to grow into."

Esmond Lowndes's father is a leading light in the British Union Of Fascists. In 1937, Esmond is sent down from Cambridge in disgrace and dispatched instead to Florence to set up Radio Firenze - an English-language radio station aiming to form closer ties between Fascists in Italy and England.

Esmond finds love and loss, and his journey of self-discovery becomes increasingly and - as Italy moves into war - more tightly intertwined with the fortunes of Florence, the city he has made his home.

And at every turn, he comes up against the local Blackshirt leader, the brutal Mario Carita.

Episode 1 (of 10)
April 1937. At Croydon Aerodrome, Esmond says goodbye to his family and begins his journey to Florence.

Alex Preston lives with his family in London. His first novel, This Bleeding City, was selected as one of Waterstones New Voices 2010. His second, The Revelations, was shortlisted for the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize. Alex is a journalist and a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Kent.

Reader: Carl Prekopp
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne

Produced by Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 23:00 Mastertapes (b04ps3bn)
Series 4

Angelique Kidjo (the A-Side)

John Wilson continues with his new series in which he talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios.

Programme 5. 'Ayé' with Angélique Kidjo

John Wilson talks to the Grammy nominated singer-songwriter and activist from Benin about her breakthrough album Ayé released in 1994 and hears her perform exclusive versions of key tracks. With songs including "Agolo," "Adouma" and "Djan-Djan", the album has been described as "a spellbinding one-world statement" where "Kidjo treats her voice like it's a percussion instrument".

One of ten children, Angélique Kidjo grew up in Benin in West Africa. But in the 1980s she moved to Paris to escape the communist regime and began synthesising the music of her native country with rock, funk, electronica and Euro-pop.

Kidjo has collaborated with artists as diverse as Alicia Keys, Philip Glass, the Kronos Quartet and Peter Gabriel and been declared as the "the undisputed Queen of African Music." Her albums regularly top the World Albums Charts and her gift is said to be "to pour what could so easily be anger and frustration into songs that uplift and inspire us."

Complete versions of the songs performed in the programme (as well as some that weren't) can be heard on the 'Mastertapes' pages on the Radio 4 website.

Producer: Clare Walker.


MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (b04ps3bq)
The defence secretary tells British people who've left the UK to fight with Islamic State that they should expect to be prosecuted on their return. And MPs who fiddle their expenses will face a by-election under proposals passed in the Commons. Sean Curran reports from Westminster.



TUESDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2014

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b04pr571)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b04prh8v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04pr573)
The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04pr575)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04pr577)
The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b04pr579)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04ps54w)
Short reflection and prayer with Glenn Jordan.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b04ps54y)
Fracking, Young Farmers, Turkeys

Later this morning MPs will debate fracking - the controversial method of extracting shale gas from rock underground. It's an adjournment debate introduced by the Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker.
To coincide with this, the Countryside Alliance has released its own report calling on the government to ensure that regulations are in place to protect the environment before fracking is allowed to go ahead. They want an independent monitoring body, investment in technology, and guarantees of sufficient insurance to cover any damage. Their head of policy Sarah Lee tells Anna Hill the industry is still developing and needs close scrutiny.
As young people across the country start to look at career options, one dairy farmer says more could be done to raise awareness of farming among secondary school students. Martin Hann says the government and supermarkets could get involved in schemes to help young people understand what opportunities the industry offers.
And Lucy Bickerton has been to a turkey farm in Oxfordshire which has seen an increase in the number of turkeys bought for the American holiday of Thanksgiving.


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04mlvyx)
Flightless Cormorant

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Chris Packham presents the flightless cormorant adapted to its Galapagos world. The isolated Galapagos Islands are famous for their unique wildlife which has evolved to adapt to a landscape free of predators. This absence of predators has allowed the native cormorant to dispense with the need to fly, why waste energy when there's nothing to fly away from? This is the only flightless member of the cormorant family, which feeds on fish and for that reason it has developed stronger feet for swimming after its prey. They nest on the rocky coasts of Fernandina and Isabela islands and the population can dip below a thousand birds especially after hurricanes or collapses in local fish numbers. They recover quickly though, but are vulnerable to introduced dogs which nearly eliminated the cormorants on Isabela Island.


TUE 06:00 Today (b04ps550)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 The Reith Lectures (b04bsgvm)
Dr Atul Gawande: The Future of Medicine

Why Do Doctors Fail?

Surgeon and writer Atul Gawande explores the nature of fallibility and suggests that preventing avoidable mistakes is a key challenge for the future of medicine.

Through the story of a life-threatening condition which affected his own baby son, Dr. Gawande suggests that the medical profession needs to understand how best to deploy the enormous arsenal of knowledge which it has acquired. And his challenge for global health is to address the inequalities in access to resources and expertise both within and between countries.

This first of four lectures was recorded before an audience at the John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Dr. Gawande's home town of Boston in Massachusetts. The other lectures are recorded in London, Edinburgh and Delhi.

The series is introduced and chaired by Sue Lawley. The producer is Jim Frank.


TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b04snkx0)
My Life in Houses

A Room of One's Own

The studious young Margaret Forster makes it to Oxford, and a 'room of one's own'.

I was born on May 25, 1938, in the front bedroom of a house in Orton Road, on the outer edges of Raffles, a council estate. I was a lucky girl.'

So began Margaret Forster's journey through the houses she's lived in, from the sparkling new council house, built as part of a utopian vision by Carlisle City Council, to her beloved London house of today, via Oxford, Hampstead and the Lake District. Forster's houses aren't just bricks and mortar, but homes which have all meant something to her and which have all had a profound effect on her - from her writer's 'room of one's own', to the family hub and finally a sanctuary in times of illness. It is also a sideways look at the life of one of the greatest contemporary British novelists.

Read by Sian Thomas.

Writer: Margaret Forster
Abridger: Sally Marmion

Producer: Justine Willett

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04ps552)
Listener Week: Refuge Closures, Social Work, Big Feet

Listener Week, Day 2 : effects of refuge closures on women and children escaping domestic abuse, three social workers talk about their love of their job, the challenge of finding attractive shoes for big feet, adult children- when is the right time to leave home, a mother survived the loss of her young son and created Europe's biggest urban sports park in his memory.


TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b04sn1h1)
Syria: Bread and Bombs

Episode 2

Black comedy by Tina Pepler.

Hassan, Jamil and Samara are taking the hazardous journey through Turkey across the Syrian border with a convoy of lorries loaded with nappies, baby milk and food parcels.

Hassan is just about to test out the contents of one of their food parcels when they reach the first checkpoint.

Director...Mary Ward-Lowery.


TUE 11:00 Shared Planet (b04ps554)
Snapping Turtles - Taking the Long View

What do elephants, snapping turtles and guillemots have in common? They are all examples of 'long-lived' animals with some species living longer than the careers of the scientists who study them. In this episode of Shared Planet Monty Don talks to Tim Birkhead and Phyllis Lee, both scientists who have studied the behaviour of long-lived species and both argue that you discover insights into long-lived animals can will help their conservation and our ability to share the planet with them.


TUE 11:30 Soul Music (b04ps556)
Series 19

Gracias a la Vida

Gracias A La Vida - thank you to life - is a song that means a lot to many people around the world. Recorded by artists as diverse as Joan Baez and the magnificent Mercedes Sosa, the song reflects the bittersweet nature of life's joys and sadnesses. To the people of Chile where it was written in 1966 by Violetta Parra, it has become an anthem that brings people together in times of trouble. One man who was tortured and imprisoned under the Pinochet regime in 1973 recalls how playing the song on guitar in prison for other inmates helped keep their spirits and hopes alive under the most brutal circumstances. Australian writer and actor Ailsa Piper recalls being gifted the words to Gracias A La Vida by a fellow walker along one of the holy routes in Spain, and how the song has become a poignant reminder of the fragility of life.

Producer: Maggie Ayre.


TUE 12:00 News Summary (b04pr57c)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 A History of Ideas (b04ps558)
Theologian Giles Fraser on Moral character

How do you make good moral decisions when you have no time to make them?

This is a question that troubled Giles Fraser after he met soldiers who had served in Afghantistan. The moral codes Giles had studied required a lot of time for thinking and reflection but you simply don't get that when deciding whether to shoot on the battle field. This led Giles to think about the Greek philosopher Aristotle and his system of virtue ethics – a way of thinking about morals that emphases character rather than rules.

Giles talks to former SAS soldier Andy McNabb and philosopher Nancy Sherman on how do you distinguish right from wrong in today's 'battle space' where the rules of engagement are no longer clear. And whether the answer is to be in a 2500 year old piece of Greek thinking.

This programme is part of a week of programmes.


TUE 12:15 You and Yours (b04ps5xw)
Call You and Yours: Have you struggled with loneliness and what have you done about it?

It's a condition that's hard to spot - and even harder to treat, but loneliness affects thousands across the UK. Earlier this year researchers said that loneliness was at epidemic levels among young people. Now a telephone helpline which supports older people says it has been inundated with calls in its first year, with loneliness the biggest problem.

What's your experience? Have you struggled with loneliness? What affect did it have on your general health? Have you managed to work with it or even make a virtue of being alone? Why have we become a nation that the Office of National Statistics dubbed "the loneliness capital of Europe"?

Tell us your stories - email us at youandyours@bbc.co.uk
Phone lines open at 11am on Tuesday - 03700 100 444

Producer: Olive Clancy
Presenter: Shari Vahl.


TUE 12:57 Weather (b04pr57f)
The latest weather forecast.


TUE 13:00 World at One (b04ps5xy)
Analysis of current affairs reports, presented by Martha Kearney.


TUE 13:45 Terror Through Time (b04ps5y0)
State Sponsored Killers

Governments don't just fight terrorists, sometimes they use them for their own ends. Fergal Keane discusses the extent of state involvement in terrorism through the 70s and 80s. He's joined by Professor Richard English of St Andrews University, Kay Schiller of Durham University and by former CIA agent, Milt Bearden.

Producer: Alasdair Cross.


TUE 14:00 The Archers (b04ps15t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama (b01rjlky)
Lost in Mexico

Episode 2

Part 2 (of 2)

British backpackers Sally and Rachel, have been arrested in Mexico City after going to a police station and falsely claiming to have been robbed - in order to receive a pay-out on their travel insurance.

Having been caught out, they are now in prison awaiting trail, their friendship tested to the limit and their hopes of a speedy return home fading.

Written by: Ingeborg Topsøe

Casting: Marilyn Johnson and David Psalmon,
Script Editor: Mike Walker,
Sound Design: Steve Bond and Rodrigo Hernández Cruz
Production manager in Mexico: David Psalmon, assisted by Patricia Madrid

Producer: Nadir Khan

Directed by John Dryden

A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 15:00 The Design Dimension (b04ps6py)
Series 2

Designing Protest

In the second of a new series, Tom Dyckhoff, writer about architecture, looks at the world we inhabit through the lens of design.

Through the experiences of an activist on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, who made a gas mask from a 'how to' guide exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the playfully provocative design of giant 'carbon bubbles' for a climate change march, Tom explores the history and the practice of design in protest.

Fashion writer Cally Blackman reflects on Victorian 'rational fashion' and political T-shirts in the era of Margaret Thatcher, to test Quentin Bell's declaration that the history of fashion is largely about protest.

And Catherine Flood, co-curator of Disobedient Objects, discusses with the comedian and political activist Mark Thomas how necessity can be the mother of inventive design for those engaged in movements for social change.

Produced by Alan Hall and Hana Walker-Brown
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 15:30 Mastertapes (b04ps6q0)
Series 4

Angelique Kidjo (the B-Side)

John Wilson continues with his new series in which he talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios. Each edition includes two episodes, with John initially quizzing the artist about the album in question, and then, in the B-side, the audience puts the questions. Both editions feature exclusive live performances.

Programme 6, the B-side. Having discussed the making of her breakthrough album 'Ayé' (in the A-side of the programme, broadcast on Monday 24th November and available online), Angélique Kidjo responds to questions from the audience and performs acoustic live versions of some of the tracks from the album which was released twenty years ago.

Producer: Clare Walker.


TUE 16:00 Spin the Globe (b04ps6q2)
Series 2

323BC - The Death of Alexander the Great

In the last of the current series of Spin the Globe Historian Michael Scott goes back to the Ancient World. In 323 BC China's warring states continue to strive for dominance. The Nanda dynasty of Northern India, still reeling from the shock of Alexander the Great's assault on its northern territories, is close to collapse in the face of the legendary leadership of Chandragupta Maurya. In the distant and uncharted West a mysterious collection of islands is circumnavigated by the extraordinary explorer and Geographer Pytheas of Massalia, providing the first clear idea of the extent and civilisations of the British Isles. And yet in a European world dominated by the civilisations of Ancient Greece it's a year shattered by the death of Alexander the Great. At the height of his powers with plans for further expeditions to the South and West the relatively young commander dies under circumstances that remain a mystery to this day. However, there's no mystery to the impact his death would have from the Iberian peninsula in the West to the Ganga valley in the east.

Producer: Tom Alban.


TUE 16:30 A Good Read (b04ps71w)
Dawn O'Porter and Graham Fellows

Dawn O'Porter and Graham Fellows, AKA John Shuttleworth, talk with Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books, including two tales of alienation, Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse and Green Girl by Kate Zambreno, and Nancy Mitford's gossipy tale of adultery and a scheming child in post war France and England.


TUE 17:00 PM (b04ps71y)
PM at 5pm- Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04pr57h)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 18:30 Tom Wrigglesworth's Hang-Ups (b04ps720)
Series 2

Running on Empty

Tom Wrigglesworth is worried for his health with his invite to an adventure-packed stag weekend of "coasteering" – where you hurl yourself off tall rocks into the sea!

But that's nothing compared with what his dad’s preparing himself for: the Sheffield marathon. An event he's decided to enter to get one over on the next door neighbour...

With Kate Anthony, Paul Copley and Judy Parfitt.

Written by Tom Wrigglesworth and James Kettle. With Miles Jupp.

Producer: Katie Tyrrell

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.


TUE 19:00 The Archers (b04pshdc)
Contemporary drama in a rural setting.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (b04pshdf)
Barry Manilow; Diana Souhami; War photography; Jewish comedy

Barry Manilow talks to Samira Ahmed about his new album, 'My Dream Duets'. It's a collection of duets with artists beyond the grave such as John Denver, Judy Garland and Whitney Houston.

Diana Souhami, whose novel Gwendolen imagines life from the point of view of Daniel Deronda's heroine, and Viv Groskop, Artistic Director of the Bath Literature Festival, discuss the trend for novels from the perspective of peripheral characters.

David Baddiel and David Schneider unpick the changing nature of Jewish comedy as a new festival begins in London.

And a new exhibition of war photography, Conflict, Time, Photography, at Tate Modern in London, hangs pictures according to how long the picture was taken after the events depicted. Is it a successful approach? Colin Ford, founding director of the National Media Museum, reviews.


TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b04sn1h1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


TUE 20:00 Afghanistan: The Lessons of War (b04pshdh)
A former commander of British and Coalition forces in Helmand embarks on a personal journey to find out what has been achieved by the thirteen-year campaign in Afghanistan. It is a quest that leads Former Major General Andrew Mackay to some of the key military and political figures of the past decade.

He puts searching questions to former US General David Petraeus and ISAF Commanders General John McColl and General David Richards, to discover if there ever was a coherent strategy for coalition troops.
He reflects on what was achieved in Afghanistan with leading politicians including former US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and former UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband.
And he looks to the future of the country with a senior figure from the current Afghan government - Mohammad Mustafa Mastoor, Deputy Minister for Finance.

General Mackay also believes that any future interventions should be based on lessons learnt in the Afghanistan campaign. But what are those lessons? He hears from experts who have studied the campaign to help him consider the role he played and to find out what conclusions can be drawn.

Andrew Mackay : "I think whoever you are when you go to an extreme environment such as Helmand, you are never the same person when you come back. I was interested in considering the role that I played as the commander of British forces in Helmand and the journey that it had taken me on."

Producer: Ian Muir-Cochrane
Editor: David Ross.


TUE 20:40 In Touch (b04pshdk)
Macular disease drugs; Anti-TNF drugs

Michael Burdon is Vice President of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists which is calling for a review of the drug Avastin - one of the drugs being used to treat the eye condition Macular Disease. Avastin is currently only licensed for treating cancer and the Department of Health will only consider reviewing drugs which are licensed for that use.
Rea Mattocks has a rare eye condition and expressed her concern that the cost of not funding the drugs to treat people like her is a greater long term drain on the public purse, than if the drugs were to be funded.


TUE 21:00 All in the Mind (b04pshdm)
Airport Security; Attitudes to Psychosis; Walking Happy

Home Secretary Theresa May says the UK is facing a terror threat "perhaps greater than it has ever been", and this week's anti-terrorism bill includes tighter airport security. But two psychology professors say current screening methods used at airports, where security agents check the behaviour of passengers for "suspicious signs", need an urgent upgrade.
Professor Tom Ormerod from Sussex University and Coral Dando from the University of Wolverhampton, designed a new conversation-based screening method and when they tested it at international airports, including London Heathrow, they found it was 20 times more effective at catching airline passengers with false cover stories than the traditional "suspicious signs" method.
Claudia Hammond asks them how the results from this study will affect airport security screening.

If you have extremely suspicious thoughts, or you hear voices that other people can't hear, traditionally these are seen as signs of a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia. On Thursday this week a major new report from the British Psychological Society will call for a radical change in the way we think and offer help to people who are experiencing psychosis. Claudia Hammond discusses how our knowledge, attitudes and treatment of psychosis and schizophrenia have changed over the past decade with anti-stigma campaigner for Time to Change, Nikki Mattocks, author of "Eyebrows and Other Fish", Anthony Scally, consultant psychiatrist Dr Shubulade Smith and BPS Report Editor, clinical psychologist Anne Cooke.

Thirty years ago psychologists found that if people were instructed to open their mouths in a smile, their mood improved...even though they didn't know they were smiling. When we feel happy, we smile, and the brain gets so used to this that it seems to happen the other way round too. Now new research suggests the same thing could happen when we walk. Johannes Michalak from Witten Herdecke University in Germany, found that when people were trained to walk in a happy style, their memories became more positive.

Producer: Fiona Hill.


TUE 21:30 Document (b04bn28m)
The Palme Assassination

In the first of the new series of Document, Gordon Corera travels to Stockholm to investigate theories about the 1986 assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme.

He begins with newly-discovered documents written by the late novelist and investigator of the far-right, Stieg Larsson.

But the trail leads him to the role of various secret services, to questions about elements of the Stockholm police, to South African dirty tricks, and ultimately back to Britain, where he makes a surprising discovery.

Producer: Phil Tinline.


TUE 21:58 Weather (b04pr57k)
The latest weather forecast.


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b04pshdp)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04snbfs)
In Love and War

Episode 2

"[He] unfolds a portrait of himself in gouache [...] It is a good likeness, he thinks, if a little tragic, and big-eared. She has drawn a man - given him something to grow into."

Esmond Lowndes's father is a leading light in the British Union Of Fascists. In 1937, Esmond is sent down from Cambridge in disgrace and dispatched instead to Florence to set up Radio Firenze - an English-language radio station aiming to form closer ties between Fascists in Italy and England.

Esmond finds love and loss, and his journey of self-discovery becomes increasingly and - as Italy moves into war - more tightly intertwined with the fortunes of Florence, the city he has made his home.

And at every turn, he comes up against the local Blackshirt leader, the brutal Mario Carita.

Episode 2 (of 10)
Esmond meets Fiamma Ricci and some of the British expatriate community in Florence.

Alex Preston lives with his family in London. His first novel, This Bleeding City, was selected as one of Waterstones New Voices 2010. His second, The Revelations, was shortlisted for the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize. Alex is a journalist and a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Kent.

Reader: Carl Prekopp
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne

Produced by Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 23:00 What The Future? (b04pshdr)
Series 1

Drugs

Britain, in a desperate attempt to look fashionable, legalises marijuana.

Soon her majesty the Queen lights up the first ceremonial joint on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. Now perpetually stoned, politicians legalise other drugs to perk us all up a bit. But soon a drug addled nation turns to beat poetry, henge sell-offs and injury claims to fund its habit.

Kirsty Wark presents a documentary from the future...

Starring:

Nadia Kamil
Geoffrey McGivern
Kieran Hogson
Alistair McGowan
Alice Scott-Gemmill
Max Olesker
Jane Slavin

Recorded 30 years from now, What the Future plunges into the world of tomorrow and investigates how decisions and actions from today’s headlining issues could have massive repercussions on our later lives.

Written by Madeleine Brettingham, Steve Burge and Dale Shaw.

Producer: Victoria Lloyd.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (b04pshdt)
Could better intelligence have stopped the brutal killing on a London street of Fusilier Lee Rigby? David Cameron faces questions from MPs on the issue. Susan Hulme has the best of the session.
Also on the programme:
* Arguments continue to rage about the big transatlantic trade deal known as TTIP.
* The Government announces new money for female victims of domestic violence.
* Why is the flagship welfare policy Universal Credit getting off to a slow start?
* And the Foreign Secretary makes a statement on what might happen next in Iran.



WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2014

WED 00:00 Midnight News (b04pr58h)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b04snkx0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04pr58k)
The latest shipping forecast.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04pr58m)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04pr58p)
The latest shipping forecast.


WED 05:30 News Briefing (b04pr58r)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04pshg5)
Short reflection and prayer with Glenn Jordan.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (b04pshg7)
Food Fraud; Wind Farms; Farming for the Future; Apprentices

Fraud is costing the UK's food industry £11bn a year according to a report by Professor Lisa Jack of the University of Portsmouth's Business School. She presented her findings to the Food Crime Conference in London yesterday. Anna Hill hears what can be done to reduce food fraud.

One of Britain's biggest wind farm developers says he's giving up applying for new schemes in England, because the Government is making it too difficult. The owner of Ecotricity, Dale Vince, tells Farming Today that he's spent millions of pounds on applications and appeals, only for the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles to refuse them. For their part, the Department for Communities and Local Government said the Government had intentionally and transparently changed official planning guidance and appeal rules, to ensure that the issues created by inappropriately-sited wind turbines are better taken into account.

This week on the programme we're looking in depth at how young people train to become farmers, and what opportunities are available to them. Some choose to take up apprenticeships where they not only learn, but earn as well. The EDGE apprenticeship scheme in East Anglia was set up in March 2013 by a large group of partners including County Councils, agricultural colleges and farmer buying groups. We hear that so far it's placed more than 150 apprentice as we meet some of those who started in September at Easton and Otley College.

'Sustainable Intensification' sounds contradictory - but the term tries to describe how farming can increase food production while minimising its effect on the environment. It's the subject of the 'Farming for the Future' conference being held today, by the Institute of Agricultural Management. Among the speakers will be Professor Jude Capper of Washington State University, who is a consultant on sustainable livestock farming. She believes her task is to debunk some of the myths around the environmental impact of meat production.

Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Mark Smalley.


WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04mlvyz)
Great Snipe

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Chris Packham presents the superbly camouflaged great snipe of Eastern Europe. A thin drizzle of tinkling notes mingled with rhythmic tapping drifts across a Polish marsh in spring a sign that great male snipes are displaying. Great snipe are wading birds with short legs and very long two-toned bills, which they use to probe bogs and wet ground for worms. Across much of Europe having newly returned from its sub-Saharan wintering grounds a number of northern and eastern European marshes, set stage as breeding sites for the larger, great snipe. They court females at traditional lekking or displaying grounds where several males vie for attention. Perched on a small mound, males gather at sunset to fan their white outer tail feathers, puff out their chests and produce a medley of very un-wader-like calls. The females, looking for a mate, are attracted to the dominant males at the centre of the lek.


WED 06:00 Today (b04v5hg2)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 Midweek (b04pshgc)
Janina Fialkowska; Dolores Payas; Edward Sexton; Gary Catona

Libby Purves meets concert pianist Janina Fialkowska; tailor Edward Sexton; Dolores Payas who translated books written by the travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor and voice coach Gary Catona.

Edward Sexton has been designing and making suits for over 40 years. In 1969 he and Tommy Nutter opened Nutters, the first new establishment on Savile Row for 120 years. Nutters' suits for men and women appealed to the celebrities of the day including the Beatles, Mick and Bianca Jagger, Twiggy and Elton John. Edward, who trained as a master cutter, continues to design stylish and sharply tailored suits from his Knightsbridge studio.

Dolores Payás met the late writer and adventurer Patrick Leigh Fermor in 2009 and translated three of his books into Spanish. The two became great friends and in her book Drink Time! Dolores remembers the days they spent together at his house in Greece towards the end of his life. Drink Time! In the Company of Patrick Leigh Fermor by Dolores Payás is published by Bene Factum Publishing.

Janina Fialkowska is an award-winning concert pianist who is regarded as one of the world's foremost interpreters of Chopin. She started to study the piano as a child and her career was launched after she won Arthur Rubinstein's inaugural Master Piano Competition in 1974. In 2002 she was diagnosed with a cancerous tumour in her left shoulder which left her unable to move her left limb. She proceeded to learn the concertos and works originally written for the left hand only and transcribed them for her right hand. Her new CD, Chopin Complete Mazurkas, is released on ATMA Classique. She is performing at Wigmore Hall and is touring with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Gary Catona describes himself as a vocal builder. He has worked with a range of performers including Andrea Bocelli, Whitney Houston and Seal. His technique involves working the voice muscles to help build a stronger singing and speaking voice. His new show, the Maestro Presents: The Ultimate Diva, is an online talent show which aims to find and train the next great diva. The Ultimate Diva goes online in 2015.

Producer: Annette Wells.


WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b04snky9)
My Life in Houses

In Need of Modernisation

The wreck that becomes the family home.

I was born on May 25, 1938, in the front bedroom of a house in Orton Road, on the outer edges of Raffles, a council estate. I was a lucky girl.'

So began Margaret Forster's journey through the houses she's lived in, from the sparkling new council house, built as part of a utopian vision by Carlisle City Council, to her beloved London house of today, via Oxford, Hampstead and the Lake District. Forster's houses aren't just bricks and mortar, but homes which have all meant something to her and which have all had a profound effect on her - from her writer's 'room of one's own', to the family hub and finally a sanctuary in times of illness. It is also a sideways look at the life of one of the greatest contemporary British novelists.

Read by Sian Thomas.

Writer: Margaret Forster
Abridger: Sally Marmion

Producer: Justine Willett

First broadcast on BBC Radio in November 2014.


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04pshgf)
Listener Week: Breastfeeding

Listener week day 3: Is there too much pressure to breastfeed? Listeners interview Queen of Slapstick Miranda Hart. Dilemma - how should people without family plan for their old age? What the best and most cost effective way to keep fit over 50? Lawyer turned Country singer Rebecca Bains.


WED 10:41 15 Minute Drama (b04sn1r5)
Syria: Bread and Bombs

Episode 3

Black comedy by Tina Pepler.

Hassan, Jamil and Samara have taken the hazardous journey across the Syrian border to Idlib with a convoy of lorries loaded with nappies, baby milk and food parcels.

The school where Samara was teaching has been bombed and Hassan has gone AWOL. Jamil is fuming.

Director...Mary Ward-Lowery.


WED 10:55 The Listening Project (b04pshgh)
Mike and Philip - A Love of the Railway

Fi Glover introduces a conversation between two volunteers on the historic Talyllyn narrow-gauge steam railway, who compare notes on how working on it benefits them personally.

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 To Rent or Not to Rent (b04pshgk)
Leah Marks is a renter from Bristol who likes renting but is coming under pressure from friends, family and partner to buy. She knows that, in the UK, it's getting harder to find your feet on the property ladder. And she also knows that even though the rental market is growing, young people are struggling with high rents, insecure tenancies, and often poor quality housing.
Meanwhile Germany is often held up as a model for renting where, for decades, it's been easy, socially acceptable, and common to rent for often long periods of time. So Leah travels to Berlin, a city with one of the highest proportion of people renting in the country.
There she meets her counterparts and compares the legal, social, psychological, economic and emotional realities of life when you rent, especially when there is very little peer and parental pressure of 'when are you going to buy?'.

Producer: Beth O'Dea.


WED 11:30 Hobby Bobbies (b04pshk4)
Series 2

Sinkhole

When an enormous sinkhole opens up, useless police officers Geoff and Nigel need to do a little more than just "look into it".

Britain's longest serving PCSO (police community support officer) is paired with the laziest in Dave Lamb's sitcom.

Geoff ....... Richie Webb
Nigel ....... Nick Walker
The Guv ....... Sinead Keenan
Nina ....... Pooja Shah
Bernie ....... Chris Emmett
Geoff's Dad. ....... Noddy Holder

Dave Lamb is the voice of Channel 4 TV's Come Dine With Me.

Producer: Steve Doherty

A Top Dog production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in November 2014.


WED 12:00 News Summary (b04pr58t)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 A History of Ideas (b04pss4j)
Neuro-psychologist Paul Broks on Morality and the Brain

The eighteenth century writer Jeremy Bentham thought that telling right from wrong as simple: morally right things were the ones that increased the total of human happiness. Wrong things were the ones that increased the stock of suffering. His principle is known as utilitarianism.

It sounds rational, but does it do justice to the way we actually think about morality? Some things seem wrong even when, according to utilitarianism, they are right.

Recently, philosophers and psychologists have started to apply experimental methods to moral philosophy. In this programme, neuropsychologist Paul Broks looks at the recent research. Some experimenters, such as Guy Kahane in Oxford, have been putting people in scanners to see which bits of the brain are most active when they struggle with moral dilemmas. Fiery Cushman at Harvard has been getting people to carry out simulated immoral acts (such as asking volunteers to fire a fake gun at the experimenter) to see how they react to unpleasant but essentially harmless tasks. And Mike Koenigs at Wisconsin Madison University has been looking at how psychopathic criminals and people with brain damage deal with moral puzzles. One school of thought now suggests that utilitarianism, far from being the "rational" way to decide right from wrong, is actually most attractive to people who lack the normal empathic responses – people very like Jeremy Bentham, in fact.

This programme is part of a week of programmes looking at the history of ideas around Freedom.


WED 12:15 You and Yours (b04pss4l)
NHS complaints; Colouring books for adults; Murderous addresses

Who hears healthcare complaints?

How gap year students are being left out in the cold by ski holiday firms.

How dementia patients - and their families - are being offered extra support to help deal with cancer.

The increasing popularity of colouring books, for adults.

Why fire alarms may need a makeover so everyone can hear them.

And can you sell a house where there's been a murder?

Producer: Pete Wilson

Presenter: Shari Vahl.


WED 12:57 Weather (b04pr58w)
The latest weather forecast.


WED 13:00 World at One (b04pss4n)
Analysis of current affairs reports, presented by Martha Kearney.


WED 13:45 Terror Through Time (b04pss4q)
Afghan Dawn

Fergal Keane on the first stirrings of Islamic fundamentalist violence in Afghanistan. How and why did this remote country earn its reputation as the crucible of global terror?
With journalist Ahmed Rashid; former CIA officer, Milt Bearden; aide to Ahmad Shah Massoud, Massoud Khalili; and South Asia Correspondent of the Guardian and Observer, Jason Burke.

Producer: Isobel Eaton.


WED 14:00 The Archers (b04pshdc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama (b04pss4s)
Mercury 13

In the early 1960s Wally Funk and Jerrie Cobb were two of thirteen young women pilots who secretly took NASA's gruelling astronaut selection tests. They passed with flying colours, in some cases beating the scores of the men. Anita Sullivan's drama-documentary explores why they were never allowed to go into space.

Narrated by Laurel Lefkow and featuring an interview with astronaut candidate, Wally Funk.

A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll.


WED 15:00 Money Box Live (b04pss4v)
Financial Help and Support for Carers

Need financial help or support to care for a relative or friend? Call 03700 100 444 from 1.00pm to 3.30pm on Wednesday or e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk now.

Over 6 million people across the UK provide care for a loved one who is disabled, seriously ill or no longer able to look after themselves.

While many people try to maintain a job and a caring role, others have to leave work altogether resulting in financial hardship. The charity Carers UK say that around 6 in 10 carers face debts because of their responsibilities and that carers often miss out on the help they are entitled to.

Are you claiming the financial benefits or grants available to you?

Do you need assistance or a break from caring?

Does your home need adapting?

How do you get a carers assessment and what does it involve?

What are your rights if you want to work flexibly, reduce your hours or begin work again after time off?

Or perhaps you're a small employer whose staff need to combine work and a caring role?

Whatever you need help with, presenter Paul Lewis and guests will be waiting for your call. Joining Paul will be:

Marian Gell, Contact a Family.
Eddy Graham, Carers UK.
Lucy McLynn, Legal Advisor to Employers for Carers.

Call 03700 100 444 between 1pm and 3.30pm on Wednesday or e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk now. Standard geographic charges apply. Calls from mobiles may be higher.


WED 15:30 All in the Mind (b04pshdm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b04pss4x)
Creative Britain - Sexology

Creative Britain: Laurie Taylor explores its rise and fall with the British historian, Robert Hewison, who provides an assessment of the cultural policies of New Labour and the Coalition. Why has culture failed to escape class? Also, a new Sexology exhibition prompts an analysis of the changing field of sex research. Kaye Wellings, Professor of Sexual & Reproductive Health Research at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, charts a history involving book burning, scandal and shame.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.


WED 16:30 The Media Show (b04pss4z)
Sun editor on white van man; The National launches in Scotland; Kenyan Young Journalist; Local TV in Birmingham

Shadow Minister Emily Thornberry resigned last week after posting a picture on Twitter showing a house in Rochester draped in the St. George's flag, and a white van outside. The homeowner Dan Ware, in an exclusive interview with The Sun, branded her 'a snob', and had his own manifesto published in the paper. Steve hears from Lauren Fruen, the graduate trainee who secured the story for the Sun, and editor David Dinsmore about what this story, and the latest expose of David Mellor's exchange with a cab driver, tell us about the newspaper's wider strategy.

Kaleidoscope TV has been awarded the licence to broadcast a new local TV channel for Birmingham. It was originally given to City TV, but the company failed to get it off the ground, and subsequently went into administration. Kaleidoscope TV now has just three months to get the channel to air. Chris Perry, Director of Kaleidoscope explains why he thinks they can make the channel work, when others have failed.

A new daily paper that "supports an independent Scotland" has launched this week. The National, published by Newsquest - which also publishes the Sunday Herald, has already had its print run increased from 60,000 to 100,000 copies. But does it have a long term future as a daily newspaper in Scotland? Steve speaks to its editor Richard Walker.

Kenyan journalist Maurice Oniang'o last night won the Thomson Foundation Young Journalist from the Developing World Award. His winning entry included a story about two child soldiers who provide security for their village from Ethiopian raiders. Steve Hewlett talks to him about sourcing stories from some of the most remote areas of the world.

Producer: Katy Takatsuki.


WED 17:00 PM (b04pss51)
PM at 5pm- Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04pr590)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 18:30 Paul Sinha's History Revision (b04pss53)
Series 1

Football

Paul Sinha looks through all of human history and examines how we came to be where we are.

He starts with something every day, something we all know to be true; he then reveals the quirks of history and the fascinating stories that led up to this point.

Paul kicks off with Football, taking as his starting point the World Cup Final in June 2014.

It was the biggest sporting event on the planet, a billion people watching 25 or so Germans and Argentinians play football in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

How did we end up here? it's a story that takes in 15th-century explorers, the slave trade, mass immigration, industrialisation, and British Army medical tests. Because no-one and nothing exists in a vacuum.

Paul Sinha is an acclaimed stand-up who was nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy award for his show Saint or Sinha?. He frequently appears on The News Quiz, The Now Show, and Fighting Talk. He is a resident 'chaser' on the ITV quiz show The Chase with several of his own series on BBC Radio 4.

Written and performed by Paul Sinha.

Producer: Ed Morrish.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.


WED 19:00 The Archers (b04pss55)
Lilian has been to visit Tony. She tells Jennifer how hard it is to see him with tubes in his throat but at least the drugs seem to be working. Lilian is worried about Pat who is in a terrible state and still hasn't been able to get in touch with Tom.

David tells Kenton, Elizabeth and Shula about the offer of £7.5m from Damara Capital and their plan to sell. Everyone starts to think about the share they will get. Kenton doesn't care who they sell to, they'll all be rich. David asks his siblings to think about it. But for now it must be kept between themselves.

Jennifer meets Richard Grenville, Carol's son, in Felpersham. Over tea, they chat about Richard's deceased stepfather, John Tregorran. Jennifer was surprised not to see Richard at the funeral but he couldn't face his mother after what she did. Jennifer leaps on this. Does he thinks Carol was in some way involved in John's death? Richard means that it broke his father's heart when Carol left him.

Appalled Lilian teases Jennifer, calling her DI Tennison. Jennifer has been reading too many Miss Marple stories and Lilian says she must leave this alone. But Jennifer is adamant that she will find out what happened. She owes it to John.


WED 19:15 Front Row (b04pss57)
Idris Elba; Howard Hodgkin; V&A's Italian Courts

With John Wilson.

Actor Idris Elba discusses his album, mi Mandela, inspired by the experience of portraying Nelson Mandela in The Long Walk to Freedom. He also explains why he won't be reprising his role as John Luther in a forthcoming US remake of the BBC drama Luther.

Painter Howard Hodgkin talks to John in his studio about 30 gouaches inspired by India which he painted between 1990-91, and are on show for the first time in London.

As the V&A Museum prepare to open the newly refurbished Italian Courts, under the new name Weston Cast Courts, curator Marjorie Trusted talks about the renovations and highlights some of the great Italian sculptures in the collection, including a cast of Michelangelo's David.


WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b04sn1r5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:41 today]


WED 20:00 Moral Maze (b04pss59)
Immigration

Our programme has been taking the moral temperature of the nation for nearly 25 years now. One of the most regularly recurring issues, and one which is still driving the headlines today, is immigration. This week's Maze will explore how the moral texture of debate on immigration has changed over the years and what those changes tell us about the nature of our society. All our witnesses have appeared on the programme sometime over the past 2 decades talking about this issue. Over the years the debate has attracted allegations of racism and bigotry. Of class and self-interest and out of touch elites imposing their views on the majority. Of ruthless instrumentalisation and cost benefit analysis reducing people to figures on a balance sheet. Over the years the nature of immigration has changed too with the enlargement of the European Union. There's also been the question of the competing claims of multiculturalism and integration and our moral responsibility to asylum seekers. In the recent years of austerity the arguments over immigration seemed to have intensified. Is this a rational and necessary reaction? A movement to re-establish fundamental principles of national self-determination? Or in an interdependent globalised economy is it time to accept that the whole idea of a divide between "us" and them" - an indigenous population and immigrants - is a morally unjustifiable anachronism?

Panellists: Matthew Taylor, Claire Fox, Melanie Phillips and Anne McElvoy

Witnesses: Ranjit Sondhi, David Goodhart, Professor Heaven Crawley and Ed West

Producer: Phil Pegum.


WED 20:45 Four Thought (b04pss5c)
Series 4

Esther Woolfson

Is it time to radically re-think pet ownership? In this highly challenging and thought provoking Four Thought the writer Esther Woolfson argues that a lifetime spent sharing her home with a variety of birds and animals - rook, magpie, crow, starling, canaries, parrots, rats and rabbits - has led her to understand just how little we really know about the capacities and feelings of other beings. Pushing us to consider why we own pets in the first place Esther's talk promises to have you looking at Rover, Ginger, Fluffy or Socks in a whole new light.


WED 21:00 Frontiers (b04pv6kq)
Vagus Nerve

Many people are living with chronic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel conditions in which the body attacks itself. Although drug treatments have improved over recent years they do not work for everyone and can have serious side effects.

Now researchers such as neurologist Dr Kevin Tracey of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, and rheumatologist Professor Paul-Peter Tak of Amsterdam University, are trying a new approach to improving the lives of these patients. They are firing electrical pulses along the vagus nerve, a major nerve that connects the brain with all the organs. The technology to do this has been around for some decades as stimulating the vagus nerve has been used to help people who have epilepsy that isn't controlled with drugs since the 1990s.

Gaia Vince talks to these pioneers of this new field of research. And she hears how there may be ways of improving the tone of the vagal nerve using meditation.


WED 21:30 Midweek (b04pshgc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


WED 21:58 Weather (b04pr592)
The latest weather forecast.


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b04pv6ks)
Ferguson - and Obama. Should - and could - the President have done more for the African-American community in his time as President ?

We look back at the life of London gangster "Mad" Frankie Fraser, who's died.

Plus - why everyone now wants to rent in Germany

the low-tax economic miracle in Texas

and the Frenchman who's found an original first folio of Shakespeare's plays.

With Ritula Shah.

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04snf0j)
In Love and War

Episode 3

"[He] unfolds a portrait of himself in gouache [...] It is a good likeness, he thinks, if a little tragic, and big-eared. She has drawn a man - given him something to grow into."

Esmond Lowndes's father is a leading light in the British Union Of Fascists. In 1937, Esmond is sent down from Cambridge in disgrace and dispatched instead to Florence to set up Radio Firenze - an English-language radio station aiming to form closer ties between Fascists in Italy and England.

Esmond finds love and loss, and his journey of self-discovery becomes increasingly and - as Italy moves into war - more tightly intertwined with the fortunes of Florence, the city he has made his home.

And at every turn, he comes up against the local Blackshirt leader, the brutal Mario Carita.

Episode 3 (of 10)
The party at the British Institute to celebrate the coronation of King George VI doesn't go according to plan.

Alex Preston lives with his family in London. His first novel, This Bleeding City, was selected as one of Waterstones New Voices 2010. His second, The Revelations, was shortlisted for the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize. Alex is a journalist and a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Kent.

Reader: Carl Prekopp
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne

Produced by Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 23:00 James Acaster's Findings (b04pv6kv)
Series 1

4. Paint

Triple Foster's nominated comedian James Acaster presents the results of his research. This week, he's been investigating 'Paint'. With Nathaniel Metcalfe ('Fresh from the Fringe') and Bryony Hannah ('Call the Midwife').

Produced by Lyndsay Fenner.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.


WED 23:15 Tim Key's Late Night Poetry Programme (b01d2hf1)
Series 1

Superstition

Tim Key tells the tale of Mike Figg, an intensely superstitious man. Tom Basden plays the xylophone and has brought his own beaters.

Written and presented by Tim Key
With Tom Basden

Produced by James Robinson.


WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (b04pv6vz)
Sean Curran reports from Westminster.



THURSDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2014

THU 00:00 Midnight News (b04pr5b4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b04snky9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04pr5b6)
The latest shipping forecast.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04pr5b8)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04pr5bb)
The latest shipping forecast.


THU 05:30 News Briefing (b04pr5bd)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04pv732)
Short reflection and prayer with Glenn Jordan.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (b04pv734)
TB penalties, Farm fraud, Farming newcomers

Farmers in Wales will face penalties if they are just one day late with their TB testing. The Welsh government has announced that from the start of next year, farmers will lose money from their Single Farm Payment if they're not testing their cattle for TB on time. Farming Today hears from the Chief Vet for Wales and NFU Cymru.

Farmers are being warned this Christmas to be vigilant and not be tricked by fraudsters after their CAP money. The money from the EU Single Payment Scheme goes into farmers' accounts in early December. The body set up by the banking industry to fight fraud, Financial Fraud Action UK, says farmers are an attractive target for scammers who can steal thousands of pounds in one phone call.

It's difficult for young people to get into farming and this morning Farming Today continues to look at the next generation of young farmers. In Scotland, the Forestry Commission has taken positive action in helping them start their future and is leasing seven 'starter' farms on a 10 year lease on small parcels of land. Ninety people applied for the farms and Nancy Nicolson met one of the successful couples.

Presented by Sybil Ruscoe and produced by Lucy Bickerton.


THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04mlpfd)
Wild Turkey

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Chris Packham presents the wild turkey of North American woodlands. We are so used to seeing mass-produced captive turkeys (the centrepiece for many a Thanksgiving meal in the United States and Canada) that the sight and sound of a displaying male wild turkey is a real surprise. With his tail fanned and red wattles a-quiver; he struts-his-stuff in a woodland clearing to win the favours of the less flamboyant hens. There are now around 7 million wild turkeys in the USA. But it wasn't always so. Wild turkeys were nearly wiped out in many states by over-shooting and woodland clearance. Their numbers fell from tens of millions in pre-Columbus days, to about thirty thousand by the last Century. Land which had been previously cleared for farming was allowed to return to woodland. Wild turkeys were released back into areas where they'd been wiped out. This along with hunting controls and behavioural research allowed their numbers to increase and their spectacular displays are once again a common sight in many areas of the USA.


THU 06:00 Today (b04pv736)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (b04pv8j1)
Kafka's The Trial

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Franz Kafka's novel of power and alienation 'The Trial', in which readers follow the protagonist Joseph K into a bizarre, nightmarish world in which he stands accused of an unknown crime; courts of interrogation convene in obscure tenement buildings; and there seems to be no escape from a crushing, oppressive bureaucracy.

Kafka was a German-speaking Jew who lived in the Czech city of Prague, during the turbulent years which followed the First World War. He spent his days working as a lawyer for an insurance company, but by night he wrote stories and novels considered some of the high points of twentieth century literature. His explorations of power and alienation have chimed with existentialists, Marxists, psychoanalysts, postmodernists - and Radio 4 listeners, who suggested this as our topic for listener week on In Our Time.

GUESTS

Elizabeth Boa, Professor Emerita of German at the University of Nottingham
Steve Connor, Grace 2 Professor of English at the University of Cambridge
Ritchie Robertson, Taylor Professor of the German Language and Literature at the University of Oxford

Producer: Luke Mulhall.


THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b04snl04)
My Life in Houses

Secure and Safe

After the frenzy of North London life in the 1960s, a fairy-tale cottage in the North of England offers rest and refuge.

I was born on May 25, 1938, in the front bedroom of a house in Orton Road, on the outer edges of Raffles, a council estate. I was a lucky girl.'

So began Margaret Forster's journey through the houses she's lived in, from the sparkling new council house, built as part of a utopian vision by Carlisle City Council, to her beloved London house of today, via Oxford, Hampstead and the Lake District. Forster's houses aren't just bricks and mortar, but homes which have all meant something to her and which have all had a profound effect on her. It is also a sideways look at the life of one of the greatest contemporary British novelists.

Read by Sian Thomas.

Writer: Margaret Forster
Abridger: Sally Marmion

Producer: Justine Willett

First broadcast on BBC Radio in November 2014.


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04pv8j3)
Listener Week: Money; Body Image; Stained Glass

We talk money - what we earn, what we spend and how we really feel about our relationship with money. One fifteen-year-old listener tells Jenni all about her campaign to give teenage girls body confidence. We find out about the stained glass artist who has been hidden from history and why it's time to look again at Margaret Rope's work. A chance to catch your advice on calling out sexist colleagues. And, what it's like finding out you're asexual and how you deal with others.

Presenter: Jenni Murray
Producer: Ruth Watts.


THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b04sn2y9)
Syria: Bread and Bombs

Episode 4

Black comedy by Tina Pepler.

Hassan, Jamil and Samara have taken the hazardous journey across the Syrian border to Idlib with a convoy of lorries loaded with nappies, baby milk and food parcels.

Jamil has been taken prisoner.

Director...Mary Ward-Lowery.


THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b04cfhm1)
Searching for Annie in Liberia

Gabriel Gatehouse reports from the Liberian capital Monrovia on the devastating impact of Ebola upon its people. In one case, a patient called Annie, 38, was discovered in her crowded shared house in harrowing conditions. She was taken away to hospital but disappeared into the system. Gabriel and his team go in search of Annie and along the way meet the medics and families on the front line of the Ebola crisis.


THU 11:30 Arnold of the Five Towns (b0477m6z)
Writer Arnold Bennett was a man of many worlds.

Born in 1867 amidst the roar and industry of The Potteries, he became a giant of the London literati, renowned far beyond the capital for works such as The Old Wives' Tale, The Card and Anna of the Five Towns.

But Bennett was not just a novelist. From screenplays to 'how to' books, Evening Standard articles to Woman magazine, he was wildly prolific, unashamed of earning a living from his art, and as capable of describing the minutiae of grand hotels as he was the life of the charwoman.

Mourned by the likes of Lord Beaverbrook and Somerset Maugham when he died in 1931, Arnold Bennett earned a level of wealth and celebrity in his lifetime of which many writers might now only dream.

So why does this man - who once wrote in his journal that he "would not care a bilberry for posterity" - seem to have somewhat fallen from fame? What's his legacy in his hometown? And what could his life and work say to 21st century Britain?

Bennett fan Samira Ahmed reappraises the reputation of this self-made man from the Potteries, visiting places as diverse as The Savoy Hotel and Stoke City FC. She tours Burslem's Bennett landmarks, delves into the archive at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery and walks the floorboards of the Middleport Pottery as she hears how it inspired one of Bennett's best-loved works.

Interviewees include Dame Margaret Drabble, historian and MP Tristram Hunt, writer Sathnam Sanghera and many others.

Producer: Alice Bloch

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in June 2014.


THU 12:00 News Summary (b04pr5bg)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 A History of Ideas (b04pvc0g)
Lawyer Harry Potter on Morality and the Law

Criminal Barrister Harry Potter asks whether the law should enforce morals, and if so, which morals?

Should the law tell us what we can and can't do? Or should it go further and tell us what is right, and what is wrong?

Criminal Barrister Lawyer Harry Potter asks what a moral law might be, in a multi-faith multi-cultural Britain. His key thinker is Jeremy Bentham – 18th century English eccentric and radical – whose theory of Utilitarianism fused law and morality.

Harry introduces the grisly tale of cannibalism which challenged the Victorian version of Christian law; he surveys the transformation of the law from the 1960s, with former Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge: from the imprisonment of homosexuals to gay marriage. And Professor Philip Schofield from University College London explains Bentham's radical concepts, which promised the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people and would have resulted in the tearing down of our great institutions.
This programme is part of a week of programmes looking at the history of ideas around Freedom.


THU 12:15 You and Yours (b04pvc0j)
Supermarket Chickens; Fixed Odd Betting; Global Moving Systems

The poisonous bug campylobacter has been found in 70% of all fresh whole supermarket chickens. For the first time, the Food Standards Agency names the shops with the highest rates of contamination, and the British Retail Consortium tells us what the supermarkets are doing to clean up the problem.

Nearly 100 councils in England are demanding the Government reduce the stake gamblers can place on fixed-odd betting machines. Currently a single roulette spin can cost £100, councils want to reduce that to £2.

And missing belongings: the company that promised to help customers move abroad fails to deliver. Peter White finds out what they can do now.

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Natalie Donovan.


THU 12:57 Weather (b04pr5bj)
The latest weather forecast.


THU 13:00 World at One (b04pvc0l)
Analysis of current affairs reports, presented by Martha Kearney.


THU 13:45 Terror Through Time (b04pvc0n)
Tiger, Tiger

Fergal Keane visits Sri Lanka to reassess the impact of the suicide bombers of the Tamil Tigers.
In 2009, the Sri Lankan government claimed an unprecedented and highly controversial victory in the history of counter terrorism.

After 26 years of conflict, it annihilated the separatist group by military force. In this edition of "Terror Through Time", Fergal Keane returns to Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, to recall the Tamil Tigers' long struggle and the way they made one, devastating weapon of modern terror their own.

With Dr. Atreyee Sen, lecturer in Contemporary Religion and Conflict at Manchester University; Dr. Miranda Alison, Associate Professor in Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick; Ananthi Sasitharan, Tamil activist; Mia Bloom, Professor of Security Studies at the University of Massachusetts- Lowell; and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka's Secretary of Defence.

Producer: Isobel Eaton.


THU 14:00 The Archers (b04pss55)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama (b01j5j2n)
Homeowners

Homeowners
Written by Kellie Smith

Wrapped up in the excitement of moving into their first home, Kate and Mark receive the shock of their lives when they discover that the house's previous owners have neglected to move out. Their dream home suddenly turns into a nightmare. A dark, unsettling thriller starring Frances Barber.

Produced by Pauline Harris
Directed by Charlotte Riches.


THU 15:00 Open Country (b04pvdhh)
Brownsea Island, Dorset

After a trip to Brownsea Island in 1818, George, the Prince Regent declared "'I had no idea I had such a delightful spot in my kingdom'. It may only be 1.5 miles long and 0.75 miles wide but this 500 acre island is full of history, mystery and wildlife.

Felicity Evans takes a boat across and meets Claire Dixon of The National Trust, who took over the island in 1963.

As Claire explains, many previous inhabitants have left their mark on Brownsea. Colonel Waugh and his wife Mary were walking along the beach in the early 19th century when she got her umbrella stuck in the sand, pulled it out and discovered clay. They built the village of Maryland and started a pottery. At a newly excavated site, you can see some of the cottages that were built for the potters. She also tells the story of the eccentric recluse, Mrs Mary Bonham Christie who threw all the inhabitants off the island and patrolled the beaches with a shotgun. She handed it back to nature and for 45 years, animals, birds and the rhododendron ran wild.

Then it's a walk to spot red squirrels with ranger John Lamming, who's lived on the island for over 30 years. Brownsea is one of the few places you can see this highly protected animal and in autumn they are easy to spot, burying food on the woodland floor.

Felicity then heads to a low hide over the saltwater lagoon, to meet Reserve manager, Chris Thain, of the Dorset Wildlife Trust to see and hear about the huge diversity of birds that frequent this area.
Finally, to the flattest part of the island where Lord Baden Powell hosted his first experimental Scout camp in 1907. Next to a huge memorial stone to the movement, Scout Commissioner, Kevin Philips explains how Brownsea is still visited by thousands of Scouts and Guides every year. Youth group leader and Girl Guide, Amanda Shorey encourages Felicity to have a go at den building, low ropes and archery, just some of the activities going on in The Outdoor Centre.

Presenter: Felicity Evans
Producer: Julia Hayball.


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b04pr6rq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:55 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Open Book (b04pr9hy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b04pvdhk)
2001: A Space Odyssey Special

As 2001: A Space Odyssey is re-released in cinemas, Francine Stock presents a special edition on Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece.
'My God, it's Full of Stars' were the last words of Dave Bowman before he journeyed through the Stargate, according to writer Arthur C. Clarke but it's an apt description for this edition of The Film Programme. Francine journeys through time and space to uncover the mysteries of this 1968 classic. Searching for the mind of H.A.L. and lost alien worlds among the delights of the Stanley Kubrick Archive at London's University of the Arts. Joining Francine on her voyage of discovery are 2001 chronicler Piers Bizony, former urbane spaceman Keir Dullea and the woman who built the moon! Other voices include production designer Harry Lange, make-up genius Stuart Freeborn, editor Ray Lovejoy, all now so much stardust, as well as those of lead ape 'Moonwatcher' (Dan Richter) & Stargate deviser Douglas Trumbull. Open the Pod Bay Doors HAL!

Producer
Mark Burman.


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b04pvdhm)
Campylobacter in Chicken; Artificial Intelligence Guru Demis Hassabis; Sexology; Lucy

Food Standards Agency report reveals 70% of supermarket chicken contaminated.
Chicken: It's the nation's favourite meat. But today, a report released by the Food Standards Agency has revealed that around three quarters of that chicken is infected by campylobacter - a family of bacteria, 12 species of which are known to cause food poisoning. The estimated cost to the UK economy is £900 million per year. All supermarkets are implicated and all supply chains too. It doesn't cause outbreaks and thorough cooking kills all the bugs. Professor Hugh Pennington tells Dr Adam Rutherford why campylobacter is such a tough bug to crack.

Can machines think?
Neuroscientist, chess master and world-champion gamer, Demis Hassabis is this week's winner of the Royal Society's Mullard Award. In 2011, he founded an AI company, Deep Mind which was acquired by Google earlier this year for £400million.He tells Adam why he believes one of the best tests for artificial intelligence is an ability to learn how to play computer games.

Why scientists study sex
Sex between humans has long been something of a taboo for scientists. But the Institute of Sexology is tackling it head-on. It's a new exhibition at London's Wellcome Collection, a frank exploration of sex and the scientists who've studied it for the past century or so. Tracey Logan went to preview the display, and asked: Why do scientists study sex?

Australopithecus discovery 40 years on
23rd November 2014 was a significant 40th birthday. Or, to be a bit more precise, it was a 3 million, 200 thousand and 40th birthday. On that day in 1974, Donald Johanson and his team in Ethiopia discovered the fossilised remains of AL 288-1, who became universally known as Lucy. Don talks to Adam Rutherford about the young woman who changed his life.

Producer: Anna Buckley & Fiona Roberts
Assistant Producer: Jen Whyntie.


THU 17:00 PM (b04pvdhp)
PM at 5pm- Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04pr5bl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 18:30 My Teenage Diary (b04pvf6l)
Series 6

Terry Wogan

Comedian Rufus Hound is joined by the broadcaster Terry Wogan, whose diary describes his life in Limerick when he was 15.

The young Terry serves his first Mass, spends hours in the cinema, loves playing Subbuteo with his friends and - when he's tired - simply eats his lunch in bed.

Produced by Harriet Jaine
A Talkback production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 19:00 The Archers (b04pvfbg)
As Fallon delivers a refurbished table, Carol gives her a secret herbal remedy for a headache. Fallon gives Carol a tip on where to get large sheets of brown paper, and also tells Carol about playing Elvira in Blithe Spirit.

Susan encourages Helen to come along to the Grundy Turkey Pardon, as a distraction from her worries.

Carol admires Eddie's costume, but he's been given a Turkish outfit rather than a turkey one. He ends up replacing it with a chicken costume. Joe's togged up as Uncle Sam, putting on a US accent.

Clarrie serves up cider and tasty morsels as Joe introduces the mystical fortune telling turkey - answering yes or no questions. Fallon gets a yes when asking if she will regret a particular decision she's made. Henry also gets a yes when he asks if Grandad Tony will be home for Christmas. Helen feels awkward.

When George discovers that the 'pardoned' turkey will still probably be killed, he insists it won't be.

Out of the blue, Tom arrives at Bridge Farm. He was in a remote cabin in Canada and has only just got the messages about Tony. Practical Tom is aware that Tony could take a while to recover, if at all. Helen begs him not to think that way.


THU 19:15 Front Row (b04pvfbj)
PD James Remembered; William Hill Sports Book of the Year; Maggi Hambling

Front Row pays tribute the writer PD James who has died aged 94. Fellow crime writer and friend Ruth Rendell reflects on James's life and work and, in a clip from our archive, James describes the four key motives for murder in a good crime story.

Rugby player Gareth Thomas, footballer Bobby Moore and ice skater John Curry are among the subjects of the books shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, the longest-running prize for sports writing. At the awards ceremony, John Wilson talks to the seven shortlisted authors and speaks to the winner of the £26,000 prize.

Maggi Hambling, who was the National Gallery's very first artist in residence in 1980, has returned to the gallery with "Walls of Water" a new exhibition of her paintings of the sea. She talks to John Wilson about painting raging storms, her tribute to Amy Winehouse and why, in her late sixties, she feels much younger than she used to.

Presenter: John Wilson
Producer: Ellie Bury.


THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b04sn2y9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


THU 20:00 The Report (b04pvfbl)
Virgin Galactic

The fatal explosion of a Virgin Galactic space plane at the end of October 2014 was a major set-back to Sir Richard Branson's dream of a flourishing space tourism venture. Lesley Curwen tells the story behind the crash and asks whether the highly lucrative Virgin brand will survive the tragedy.

Producer: Simon Coates
Researcher: Kirsteen Knight.


THU 20:30 In Business (b04stlw4)
A Tale of Two Sanctions

Peter Day talks to companies affected by economic sanctions imposed against Russia, and by retaliatory sanctions imposed by Russia, and asks how they cope when they suddenly lose a key market. He also asks how effective sanctions are and who they hit the hardest.

Producer: Caroline Bayley.


THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b04pvdhm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


THU 21:30 In Our Time (b04pv8j1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 21:58 Weather (b04pr5bn)
The latest weather forecast.


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b04pvfrv)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04snf35)
In Love and War

Episode 4

"[He] unfolds a portrait of himself in gouache [...] It is a good likeness, he thinks, if a little tragic, and big-eared. She has drawn a man - given him something to grow into."

Esmond Lowndes's father is a leading light in the British Union Of Fascists. In 1937, Esmond is sent down from Cambridge in disgrace and dispatched instead to Florence to set up Radio Firenze - an English-language radio station aiming to form closer ties between Fascists in Italy and England.

Esmond finds love and loss, and his journey of self-discovery becomes increasingly and - as Italy moves into war - more tightly intertwined with the fortunes of Florence, the city he has made his home.

And at every turn, he comes up against the local Blackshirt leader, the brutal Mario Carita.

Episode 4 (of 10)
While Goad recovers in hospital after Carita's attack, Esmond falls under the spell of Fiamma and Goad's son, Gerald.

Alex Preston lives with his family in London. His first novel, This Bleeding City, was selected as one of Waterstones New Voices 2010. His second, The Revelations, was shortlisted for the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize. Alex is a journalist and a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Kent.

Reader: Carl Prekopp
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne

Produced by Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 23:00 Another Case of Milton Jones (b012wzpg)
Series 5

Gardening Expert

Milton crosses stamens with a deadly rival in the vicious cutthroat world of gardening. He's joined in his endeavours by his co-stars Tom Goodman-Hill ("Camelot"), Dave Lamb ("Come Dine With Me") and Margaret Cabourn-Smith ("Miranda").

Milton Jones returns to BBC Radio Four for an amazing 9th series - which means he's been running for longer than Gardeners' Question Time and answered more questions on gardening as well.

Britain's funniest Milton and the king of the one-liner returns with a fully-working cast and a shipload of new jokes for a series of daffy comedy adventures

Each week, Milton is a complete and utter expert at something - brilliant Mathematician, World-Class Cyclist, Aviator, Championship Jockey...

... and each week, with absolutely no ability or competence, he plunges into a big adventure with utterly funny results...

"Milton Jones is one of Britain's best gagsmiths with a flair for creating daft yet perfect one-liners" - The Guardian.

"King of the surreal one-liners" - The Times

"If you haven't caught up with Jones yet - do so!" - The Daily Mail

Written by Milton with James Cary ("Think The Unthinkable", "Miranda"), the man they call "Britain's funniest Milton," returns to the radio with a fully-working cast and a shipload of new jokes.

The cast includes regulars Tom Goodman-Hill ( "Spamalot"), Lucy Montgomery ("Down The Line"), Dave Lamb ("Come Dine With Me") and Ben Willbond ("Horrible Histories")

David Tyler's radio credits include Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive, Cabin Pressure, Bigipedia, Another Case Of Milton Jones, Jeremy Hardy Speaks To The Nation, Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off, The 99p Challenge, The Castle, The 3rd Degree and even, going back a bit, Radio Active. His TV credits include Paul Merton - The Series, Spitting Image, Absolutely, The Paul & Pauline Calf Video Diaries, Coogan's Run, The Tony Ferrino Phenomenon and exec producing Victoria Wood's dinnerladies.

Produced & directed by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (b04pvh14)
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.



FRIDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2014

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b04pr5cl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b04snl04)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04pr5cn)
The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04pr5cq)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04pr5cs)
The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b04pr5cv)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04pvk17)
Short reflection and prayer with Glenn Jordan.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b04pvk19)
Dairy Update; Campylobacter; Succession planning

70% of fresh chickens sold by UK supermarkets are contaminated with campylobacter, says the Food Standards Agency. What can be done to reduce the 280,000 cases of food poisoning caused by chicken infected with the bacteria? Charlotte Smith speaks to Arnoud van Vliet, a lead scientist at the Institute of Food Research.

Dairy farmers are continuing to hold protests over the price they get for milk. Earlier this week around 200 farmers staged blockades, one in Cheshire and one in Wiltshire. They're targeting milk processors, and also supermarkets which sell milk at a discount, saying that devalues their product. We hear from Neil Madeley who's been a dairy farmer in Shropshire for the last 30 years. He's just sold his entire herd of Shorthorn and Pedigree Holsteins, because of falling milk prices.

And we report from the Fertile Minds conference in Penrith, which brought together 150 young farmers from all over the UK. High on the agenda was the thorny topic of succession - when does the next generation take over the business and what happens when Dad doesn't want to even discuss retiring, let alone actually do it? John Dunning is a Cumbrian sheep farmer who's diversified into motorway service stations. He's just handed over the running of the business to his daughter, Sarah.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Mark Smalley.


FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04mlvz1)
Madagascar Harrier-hawk

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Chris Packham presents the Madagascan Harrier-hawk from Madagascar. Among the branches of a Madagascan forest, there's a flutter of wings and a flash of double-jointed feet. The Madagascan harrier-hawk is a striking bird, uniform grey above and finely-barred beneath with black wing-tips and a white-banded black tail. There's a patch of sulphurous skin around its bill and eyes: and its long legs are also bright yellow. Those long legs help the harrier-hawk hunt for food that's beyond the reach of most other birds of prey. Using its wings for balance and twisting its flexibly-jointed legs at seemingly impossible angles, the harrier-hawk inserts its talons into tiny holes, relying on its sense of touch to locate its prey. Madagascar harrier-hawks do hunt more conventionally by gliding over the forest, seizing small birds, reptiles and mammals such as the Verreaux's sifaka.


FRI 06:00 Today (b04pvk1c)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b04pr6rz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b04snl1n)
My Life in Houses

Inside My House, I Can Cope

As Margaret Forster's struggle with cancer continues, she reflects the importance of home, and why, inside her own home, she can cope.

I was born on May 25, 1938, in the front bedroom of a house in Orton Road, on the outer edges of Raffles, a council estate. I was a lucky girl.'

So began Margaret Forster's journey through the houses she's lived in, from the sparkling new council house, built as part of a utopian vision by Carlisle City Council, to her beloved London house of today, via Oxford, Hampstead and the Lake District. As well as a poignant reflection on home and the effect of home on us, My Life in Houses is also a sideways look at the life of one of the greatest contemporary British novelists.

Concluded by Sian Thomas.

Writer: Margaret Forster
Abridger: Sally Marmion

Producer: Justine Willett

First broadcast on BBC Radio in November 2014.


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04pvk1f)
Listener Week: Tribute Bands; Review of the Week.

The Listener Week finale. Karel Lush got in touch wanting to share her passion for live music. She missed out on seeing her idols first time around and now spends her spare time going to see tribute bands. Karel's favourite are the Stylistics tribute Sing Baby Sing, were playing at a Soul and 60s legends weekend at Brean Sands in Somerset. We sent our reporter Felicity Finch to join Karel as she got ready for her big night out.

Jane contacted the programme because she is unsure how to talk to her 15 year-old daughter about sex. She would also like to know how to protect her daughter from sexual exploitation and whether it's possible to ensure her daughter uses contraception once she is an adult. Jane puts her questions to child psychologist Laverne Antrobus and family solicitor Elspeth Thomson.

Angela has raised the issue of helping people with dementia with personal grooming, which can help raise their self esteem. Jenni is joined by the Guardian's beauty editor Sali Hughes and by Kathryn Smith from the Alzheimer's Society, to hear the suggestions.

Plus advice for a mum who's now in a same sex relationship and wants to tell her daughter.

Plus two of our listeners, who regularly tweet their opinions, join Jenni in the studio to review the week.


FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b04sn50x)
Syria: Bread and Bombs

Episode 5

Black comedy by Tina Pepler.

Hassan, Jamil and Samara have taken the hazardous journey across the Syrian border to Idlib with a convoy of lorries loaded with nappies, baby milk and food parcels.

Jamil has had a visit from Khaled, pretending to be his son. Hassan has a plan to get him out of prison.

Director...Mary Ward-Lowery.


FRI 11:00 Hot Gossip! (b04pvb7m)
1. Origins

If language elevates us above other animals, why does human society seem to spend so much time gossiping? Perhaps it's because without gossip there would be no society and language would be much less interesting. In the first of two programmes, Geoff Watts explores our fascination with small talk and chit chat. Where did gossip come from, why did it evolve and how has it changed (and changed us) in the digital age?

If your guilty pleasure is rifling through gossip magazines, then here's a reassuring message: you are merely fulfilling an evolutionary drive. The brain is 'hard-wired' to be fascinated by gossip - which not only helps members of your social group to bond but can also help to police those in the group who transgress. Biologist call them ‘free-riders’ and in large social groups, free-riders can wreak havoc with the society unless they’re policed – by gossip.

For anthropologist Robin Dunbar, author of the now classic text, ‘Grooming, Gossip and The Evolution of Language’, it is not the pearls of wisdom that makes the world go round but everyday tittle tattle: “we are social beings and our world is cocooned in the interests and minutiae of everyday social life. They fascinate us beyond nature”. Gossip, which Dunbar says can be traced back to social grooming in apes, makes up around two-thirds of general conversation according to his research. Without gossip says Dunbar “there can be no society”.

Of course, historically, culturally, morally gossip has rarely been seen as anything but good. In Judaism where derogatory speech about another person has a special name – ‘Lashon Hara’ or 'evil tongue', it is, says Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, “…regarded it as one of the worst of all sins’. Gossip is said to kill three people, “the one who says it, the one he/she says it about, and the one who listens in. Gossip is not just a sinful act but one that contaminates others”. Nowhere is this more evident than recent cases of internet trolling and cyber bullying. “we need a new ethic” argues Sacks. But are we even capable of changing our nasty habits?

Producer: Rami Tzabar

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.


FRI 11:30 The Missing Hancocks (b04pvk1j)
Series 1

The New Neighbour

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 New Neighbour. Tony has a new neighbour, whose night-time routine is very, very suspicious.....

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 New Neighbour was last broadcast in March 1956.

Produced by Ed Morrish and Neil Pearson.


FRI 12:00 News Summary (b04pr5cx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 A History of Ideas (b04pvp7l)
Philosopher Angie Hobbs on the Value of Conscience

Philosopher Angie Hobbs examines the concept of conscience or moral intuition and asks whether it stands up to rational scrutiny.

In his Novel 'The Brothers Karamazov' the 19th century Russian writer Dostoevsky posed a moral dilemma – would it be morally right to murder an innocent child in exchange for Paradise on earth for all other humans.

In other words does the end ever justify the means or are there actions which are simply unacceptable whatever the benefit?

Angie Hobbs examines our moral intuitions and our sense of 'conscience' by talking through Dostoevsky's dilemma and asking what we really mean when we declare an act unconscionable.

This programme is part of a week of programmes looking at the history of ideas around Freedom.


FRI 12:15 You and Yours (b04pvp7n)
Unicom, Toys for Girls, Autographs

The telecoms company Unicom has been criticised before - but never in Parliament. We'll hear why he claimed in Parliament that the ombudsman charged with dealing with complaints is "toothless".

Also - the days of waiting outside a stage door with a soggy piece of paper to grab an autograph are long gone. It's all about the selfie now. But what has leaning in to a celeb with an outstretched smartphone done to the market for autographs? We talk to a man who sells them all - from Elizabeth I to Barack Obama.

We'll also bring you an update on the commissioning Group which is considering not offering free hearing aids to people whose hearing loss is moderate.

There's a report from a house which stores its solar energy underground to be retrieved in the dark days of winter, and a report from the front line of the retail bonanza that is... Black Friday.

And do you get annoyed by toys which are branded "for girls"? We'll speak to three sisters to get their take on whether they want gender-defined toys.


FRI 12:57 Weather (b04pr5cz)
The latest weather forecast.


FRI 13:00 World at One (b04pvp7q)
Cameron seeks EU support for new migration curbs; Farage says another failure; Tory backbenchers and Labour also respond; reaction from Poland, and Emma Jane Kirby reports from Denmark on plans to crack down on migrants' benefits there.

Also, ahead of the Chancellor's Autumn Statement next week, we look at likely targets for further spending cuts in the next parliament.

Presented by Mark Mardell.


FRI 13:45 Terror Through Time (b04pvp7s)
Northern Ireland: The End Game

Fergal Keane is joined by Tony Blair's Chief of Staff, Jonathan Powell and by Professor Richard English of St Andrews University to discuss the peace deal that brought the long conflict with the IRA to an end.

Producer: Owen McFadden.


FRI 14:00 The Archers (b04pvfbg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Drama (b04pvp7v)
Maxine Peake - My Dad Keith

Maxine Peake writes and stars in this tale of teenage angst, mid-life crisis and drumming.

The play debuts Mike Joyce the drummer from The Smiths in his first acting role.

Reaching her 40th birthday and with her grandad in hospital, Steph begins to reflect on her life, loves and the quest to find out who her dad was. As a teenager a fractious relationship with her mother pushes Steph towards her grandad and together they set out to piece together the clues to the identity of her dad. They come to a startling conclusion about him.

Steph loves drumming - on anything. She's not got a drum kit but taps out her life using kitchen utensils and releases her tensions and worries on any surface available.

Steph ...... Maxine Peake
Carole ...... Siobhan Finneran
Jeff ...... Mike Joyce
Young Jeff ...... Nico Mirallegro
Young Steph ...... Rebecca Ryan
Lily ...... Rachel Austin
Grandad ...... Roger Morlidge

Director: Michelle Choudhry

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b04pvp7x)
North Wales

Eric Robson hosts the horticultural panel programme from North Wales. Toby Buckland, Bob Flowerdew and Anne Swithinbank take questions from the audience.

Produced by Howard Shannon
Assistant Producer: Claire Crofton
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4

This week's questions and answers:

Q Can you tell me what it the secret of success with Florence Fennel? Ours looked spectacular but the stem has not swollen.

A. Florence Fennel is difficult to grow - requiring warmth and rich soil that never dries out. Taking off the older leaves can encourage swelling at the base, keep the plant warm, well watered and well fed. However, you can still use the stems for flavouring. Sow the plant after the longest day of the year so that it produces the bulb at the base. Use a mulch of newspaper sheets to keep it warm.

Q. Can you cut back Phormiums? What is the best way to do this? How should I feed the plants?

A. Toby suggests using secateurs. Anne suggests digging up the clump and separating it out to reduce the size. If you would like a less vigorous species, try the 'Alison Blackman' variety. Don't feed the plants as growth is vigorous enough. They require a lot of watering though.

Q. Why do my Courgette plants produce loads of male flowers, very few female flowers and thus very few courgettes?

A. The plants tend to produce lots of male flowers at the beginning of the season and then later on female flowers and fruits - so if the plants are somewhere cool, you're less likely to get fruit. Likewise, if the plants are too hot or too dry, you'll only get male flowers. Mulching could help to keep the moisture in. It's important to sacrifice the first fruits for a bigger crop.

Q. I'm having trouble growing plants in my rockery. I've heard that ferns can poison other plants - could this be the problem?

A. Bob isn't sure it's true that ferns can poison other plants but ferns tend to thrive in places that other plants don't. The problem might be more to do with the lack of soil in your rockery. You might be better trying to grow alpines in the little niches in the rocks. Alternatively, you could dismantle the rockery, kill off the ferns, improve the soil and reassemble the rocks so that plants have enough room to put their roots down below ground level.

Q. This year my lettuce sowings went straight to seed despite regular thinning.

A. They flower when they are stressed - drought and heat can cause stress. Iceberg Lettuce is a good variety to grow in hot summers where heat and drought are likely. In future, plant thinner and thin out in the early stages of growth and water regularly to prevent this from happening.

Q. None of my Camellias grown from seed have flowered - what can I do to encourage flowering?

A. The plants flower well in the warmth. Some plants take a long time to flower.

Q. I've fallen in love with many different plant families, what plant families have the panel fallen for and are they still together?

A. Anne loves Irises, particularly bearded Irises - one called 'Celebration Song' is particularly lovely. She also loves Asclepiads, the Hoyas, Stephanotis and the Stapeliads. Toby loves the Labias and the Indian Bean Tree for its Latin name - Bignoniodes. Bob loves the Rosaceae family.


FRI 15:45 Short Rides in Fast Machines (b04pvp7z)
The Fall of Paris by Toby Litt

A multi-contributor series of specially-commissioned radio stories about speed.

Every generation observes that life is getting faster - the pace of change, of action, or communication. Our cars, trains, boats and planes are faster than ever. And as every world-record on the athletic track confirms, we're still getting faster ourselves. The title is inspired by the minimalist composition by John Adams ('Short Ride In A Fast Machine').

Episode 2:
"The Fall Of Paris" by Toby Litt
A video-clip goes viral online with unforeseen and different consequences for the film-maker and his subject.

Toby Litt was born in 1968 and grew up in Bedfordshire. In 2003, he was named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. His stories 'The Melancholy' (2010), 'People Carry Roses' (2011) and 'The Sandy' (2012) featured in previous Sweet Talk series for BBC Radio 4. His latest collection of short stories 'Life-Like' will be published in November 2014.

Reader: Julian Rhind-Tutt

Produced by Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (b04pvp81)
PD James, 'Mad' Frankie Fraser, Glen A Larson, Medlin Lewis-Spencer, Arthur Butterworth MBE

Matthew Bannister on

Baroness James of Holland Park - the crime novelist P.D. James - who was also a Governor of the BBC.

Then a real life criminal: 'Mad ' Frankie Fraser - an East End gangster noted for his violence who spent a total of 42 years in prison.

Also: TV director Glen A. Larson who brought us Quincy, Magnum PI and Battlestar Galactica.

Medlin Lewis-Spencer, the Mayor of Hackney who defected from Labour to the Conservatives

And the composer Arthur Butterworth who was often inspired by the British landscape.


FRI 16:30 Feedback (b04pvp83)
The BBC World Service is now funded by the licence fee which means the UK public is now paying for a service that many rarely use. Roger Bolton talks to the service's outgoing director, Peter Horrocks, about the challenges facing his successor.

Radio 4's PM programme continues to keep its audience up to date with Michael Buerk's progress on I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here. Many listeners love these light-hearted jungle moments; many others feel they have no place in a serious news programme. PM's editor Joanna Carr defends the programme's character and explains why the esteemed presenter of the Moral Maze is fair game for a bit of leg-pulling.

As part of Listeners' Week, Radio 4's In Our Time asked for suggestions for the topic of this week's programme. Roy Bailey and Lauren Hall's idea of Franz Kafka's The Trial was chosen from over 900 entries. They give their verdict on the programme, and Melvyn Bragg and his producer Tom Morris talk to Roger about what made Roy and Lauren's Kafkaesque proposal stand out.

Produced by Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (b04pvp85)
Grace and Marie - Big Schools and Big Changes

Fi Glover introduces a conversation between eleven year olds in their first term at secondary school about the challenges of the transition to 'big school'.

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 (b04pvp87)
PM at 5pm- Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04pr5d1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (b04pvp89)
Series 85

Episode 6

A satirical review of the week's news, chaired by Sandi Toksvig, who is joined by Rebecca Front, Hugo Rifkind and Andrew Maxwell, alongside regular panellist Jeremy Hardy.


FRI 19:00 The Archers (b04pvp8c)
Roy buys chocolates for Phoebe, who is still at Home Farm. Roy's sure that Phoebe will want to spend Christmas with Hayley and Abbie and so he's agreed to work on Christmas Day.

Jennifer can't make the SAVE meeting this evening so Jim brings her up to date with the traffic census. It looks like traffic has actually reduced, but they need to do an overnight survey to confirm it.

Roy asks Jennifer to persuade Phoebe to come home but Jennifer doesn't think she can. It's clear that Phoebe wants to be at Home Farm. Roy needs to be patient.

Tom is shocked to see Tony in hospital. He thought he was prepared but Tony looks so old. Emotional Tom opens up to a silent Tony. He's sorry for how he behaved and for leaving Tony to pick up the mess. Tom vows to make his dad proud, to be a good son and farmer, just like Tony.

Peggy thinks that seeing Tom must have been a tonic for Tony. She feels guilty. Tony went into beef to prove a point after the upset over her will. Peggy is delighted when Tom says he's back for good.

Helen has worrying news. Tony has to have a tracheostomy. Every time there's improvement, something else goes wrong. Where will it all end?


FRI 19:15 Front Row (b04pvp8f)
Annie Lennox; James Franco; Philippe Sands; How to Win an Oscar

Annie Lennox talks to Kirsty Lang about her new album Nostalgia, on which she covers songs from The Great American Songbook. Hollywood actor and director James Franco shows Kirsty round his latest art venture Fat Squirrel. The international human rights lawyer Philippe Sands discusses A Song of Good and Evil, a show he developed when he realised that both a Nuremberg prosecutor and defendant shared a passion for Bach. And with the New York Film Critics Circle Awards kicking off the awards season this weekend, film critic Tim Robey gives us his advice on how to win an Oscar.

Producer Jerome Weatherald.


FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b04sn50x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b04pvp8h)
Natalie Bennett, Alan Johnson MP, Mark Reckless MP, Baroness Stowell

Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion from the Skegness Academy School in Lincolnshire with the Leader of the Green Party Natalie Bennett, former Home Secretary Alan Johnson MP, the new UKIP MP for Rochester and Strood in Kent, Mark Reckless, and the Leader of the House of Lords Baroness Stowell.

If you would like tickets to Any Questions in Skegness on 28th November 2014 then please email any.questions@bbc.co.uk.


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b04pvp8k)
Thinking the Unthinkable

John Gray argues that "thinking the unthinkable" as a way of making policy does nothing more than extend conventional wisdom to the point of absurdity and fails to take account of the complexities of reality. "Capitalism has lurched into a crisis from which it still has not recovered. Yet the worn-out ideology of free markets sets the framework within which our current generation of leaders continues to think and act."

Producer: Sheila Cook.


FRI 21:00 A History of Ideas (b04pvp8m)
Omnibus

How Do I Tell Right from Wrong?

A new history of ideas presented by Melvyn Bragg but told in many voices.

Melvyn is joined by four guests with different backgrounds to discuss a really big question. This week the question is 'How do I tell wrong from right?'

Helping him answer it are Neuropsychologist Paul Broks, Philosopher Angie Hobbs, Theologian Giles Fraser and Lawyer Harry Potter.

For the rest of the week Paul, Angie, Giles and Harry will take us further into the history of ideas about morality with programmes of their own.

Between them they will examine the idea of conscience and moral intuitions, the relationship between morality and the law, whether moral systems can work on the battlefield and what the brain seems to do when we are making moral decisions.

In this omnibus edition all five programmes from the week are presented together.


FRI 21:58 Weather (b04pr5d3)
The latest weather forecast.


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b04pvp8p)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04sngfy)
In Love and War

Episode 5

"[He] unfolds a portrait of himself in gouache [...] It is a good likeness, he thinks, if a little tragic, and big-eared. She has drawn a man - given him something to grow into."

Esmond Lowndes's father is a leading light in the British Union Of Fascists. In 1937, Esmond is sent down from Cambridge in disgrace and dispatched instead to Florence to set up Radio Firenze - an English-language radio station aiming to form closer ties between Fascists in Italy and England.

Esmond finds love and loss, and his journey of self-discovery becomes increasingly and - as Italy moves into war - more tightly intertwined with the fortunes of Florence, the city he has made his home.

And at every turn, he comes up against the local Blackshirt leader, the brutal Mario Carita.

Episode 5 (of 10)
Borrowing Father Bailey's car, Esmond, Gerald and Fiamma help Norman Douglas to flee from Florence.

Alex Preston lives with his family in London. His first novel, This Bleeding City, was selected as one of Waterstones New Voices 2010. His second, The Revelations, was shortlisted for the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize. Alex is a journalist and a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Kent.

Reader: Carl Prekopp
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne

Produced by Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 23:00 A Good Read (b04ps71w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]


FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (b04pvp8r)
Mark D'Arcy reports from Westminster as the government is challenged over the latest immigration figures and MPs hear a call for a ban on revenge evictions.


FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (b04pvp8t)
Kate and Rachel - Limestone beneath My Feet and above My Head

Fi Glover with a conversation between a poet fascinated by the limestone landscape of her home and a theatre director who values the secrets hidden beneath the limestone.

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.