The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
Short-story series featuring new writing by leading comedians, recorded live in front of an audience at 2014's Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
A stand-up comic and comedy-writer, Maguire received a prestigious BBC Radio 4 Comedy Writer's bursary in 2013. She’s written topical jokes for The Now Show and The News Quiz.
Literature, religion and the hurdy-gurdy man. Internationally acclaimed tenor Ian Bostridge concludes his exploration of Schubert's existential masterpiece Winterreise, Winter's Journey.
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Reverend Sharon Grenham-Toze.
'Come on mum, it's just death, just relax.' A listener in London and a woman in Aleppo, Syria, discuss the challenges of parenthood. And a listener who helped build the Channel Tunnel tells us about one special moment. Presented by Eddie Mair and Jennifer Tracey. Email iPM@bbc.co.uk.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
Helen Mark travels to Suffolk, to explore the landscape of the coast and the lives of the people who live near it. She hears about the lost city of Dunwich, which in Medieval times was a thriving commercial port, but was gradually claimed by the sea, leaving only a village still standing today. She also hears about the birds which can be found on the RSPB nature reserve nearby, and meets an artist whose life and work are inspired by the sea.
Charlotte Smith looks back at the big stories of 2014 for farming, including tumbling milk prices and badger culling, and considers what 2015 might hold...She is joined by the President of the National Farmers' Union Meurig Raymond, Gloucestershire dairy farmer Richard Cornock, and the Chair of the National Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs Claire Worden.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Thought for the Day and Weather.
Chef, restaurateur and Masterchef judge Marcus Wareing joins Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles.
Actor, presenter and reality TV star Alison Hammond talks celebrity, 'Strictly' and allotments.
We hear the extraordinary story of the woman who fell in love with her sperm donor. Aminah Hart's daughter was born two years ago following IVF using an anonymous donor, but she tracked down the donor and is now engaged to dad Scott Anderson.
Michael Parker reveals how best to sell yourself. He shares lessons learnt from fifty years as an advertising exec and the two Olympic Games where he competed in the hurdles.
And writer, director, actor and comedian John Waters picks his Inheritance Tracks.
'It's Not What You Say It's The Way You Say It' by Michael Parker is published by Vermilion
Jay Rayner hosts the culinary panel programme in St. Albans.
Taking questions from a local audience are chef Sophie Wright, Masterchef winner Tim Anderson, food psychologist Charles Spence and broadcaster and cook Andi Oliver.
The panel discuss the versatility of winter spices; explore the history of Grains of Paradise; ask what constitutes the perfect meal; and reveal their go-to new year comfort food.
Our world seems to be bound and criss-crossed by lines: except that when you look closely, many of them do not exist in reality, only in your mind. So what are we to make of lines: a useful human abstraction, to help us make sense of the world? And what does a line mean to an artist, whether one who wields a paintbrush or pencil, or one who fashions words into poetic verse? Joining Bridget Kendall are social anthropology professor Timothy Ingold, poet and graphic artist Imtiaz Dharker and distinguished South African artist William Kentridge.
Insight, colour, analysis: in this edition, the once impregnable Rajapaksa camp is suddenly looking vulnerable as the Sri Lankan election approaches, Charles Haviland; Russians are enjoying their extended Christmas break but for their president, Vladimir Putin, difficult times may lie ahead, Sarah Rainsford; the Ethiopian government faces accusations over its plans to create huge new agricultural complexes, Matthew Newsome set off towards the southern lowlands to investigate and a journey of a lifetime in the US: Jonathan Izard points his car towards the sunset and ponders the meaning of life itself.
A nation of renters. Mortgages for older people. Payday lending capped.
As new figures reveal that we've become a nation of renters, Money Box finds out why home ownership has reached a 25-year low and what can be done to help those who can't get on the housing ladder. Is Buy-to-Let to blame? And how will renting change as it becomes the new normal?
Not so long ago we heard how people pushing forty were struggling to get a mortgage, but now Money Box has found home loans that will see you into your eighties.
As new restrictions on payday lenders come into effect, Money Box asks if they're tough enough and what difference they'll make to borrowers.
Why does it cost so much to transfer money overseas? Money Box investigates the fees charged by remittance companies and seek out ways of moving money for less.
The classic impression show takes a look back at 2014 together with a sneak preview of things that will definitely happen in 2015. How will the UKIP/Labour coalition fair?
Starring Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Duncan Wisbey, Lewis MacLeod, Debra Stevenson.
The BBC's top international news correspondents look ahead to the major developments in 2015, in a lively discussion chaired by Mark Mardell.
He is joined by chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet, China editor Carrie Gracie, business editor Kamal Ahmed and diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall.
Mark will be asking for their ideas about the stories and the people to watch over the coming months.
What will happen in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine - and how will it affect the rest of us in Europe? Will Britain and other Western nations succeed in stopping the advance of the group calling itself Islamic State - and which other countries' help will they need to obtain? What are the prospects for the global economy? And how will China flex its muscles on the international stage?
The Independence Referendum was intended to settle the issue of Scotland's future for a generation. But has it highlighted - or even created - a crack down the centre of Scottish society? On one side, you have passionate yes voters; younger, mobilised, comfortable in social media, disengaged from UK politics, less "British" than before. On the other, you have older, perhaps wealthier people, who tend to remember Thatcher and the Cold War, and who may be more closely engaged with mainstream media. Aasmah Mir will walk this faultline in Scottish society. She'll speak to #the45 who are keeping Scottish Independence alive in social media, and those no voters who, heart-sore at the division caused by the referendum, are determined that the question is never ever put again.
An adaptation for radio of the National Theatre's production of Alan Bennett's short autobiographical play "Cocktail Sticks", originally directed by Nicholas Hytner. Alan looks back on his early life with affection and sadness, revisiting some of the themes and conversations of his memoir "A Life Like other People's". Both he and - to a certain extent - his mother (with her longing for "cocktail parties"), are seduced by the idea that other people's lives are much richer and more fulfilling than their own. But in adulthood Alan came to realise the value of a happy family upbringing, and the particular strengths and virtues of his father and mother. When Alan and his mother do, finally, have cocktail parties, they are not at all what his mother would have envisaged.... Alan is played by Alex Jennings and Alan Bennett, supported by the original National theatre cast of Gabrielle Lloyd, Jeff Rawle, Sue Wallace and Derek Hutchinson.
Music composed by ..... George Fenton
Music played by ..... Chris Fish and Rachel Elliot
National Theatre Director ..... Nicholas Hytner
Radio Abridgement and Production ..... Gordon House.
Ute Lemper is a German singer and actress renowned for her interpretation of the work of Kurt Weill. In this programme, she explores the composer's journey from German Jewish refugee to Broadway superstar.
Best known as the composer of Mack the Knife, Weill was forced to leave his native Germany in 1933 as National Socialism deemed his work 'entartete musik' - degenerate music.
In New York, he forged a career as one of the most successful theatre composers of the 20th century - with stage works such as Street Scene, Lost in the Stars and Lady in the Dark.
In this personal portrait, Ute Lemper reflects on what she describes as the cultural destruction of Germany and her mission to bring the story of Kurt Weill to a wider audience.
Contributors include Professor Kim Kowalke, James Holmes and Professor Stephen Hinton.
Jane Hawking talks about her marriage to the cosmologist Stephen and her reaction to seeing herself on screen in the film based on her autobiography Travelling to Infinity.
We celebrate women who have excelled in sport in the last year and ask if women's sport is finally getting the attention it deserves? The BBC's Eleanor Oldroyd joins the programme.
Ruffles, gingham and wearing all white are going to be in fashion this summer- so what will you be avoiding and what will you be wearing? Judith Woods of the Daily Telegraph and style writer Polly Vernon debate the trends.
On May 7th Britain goes to the polls to vote in a General Election so how will the politicians from all parties be trying to appeal to women voters? Newsnight's political editor Allegra Stratton unpicks the current political situation.
We have advice on how to rid yourself of friendships that are no longer working. Novelist Jo Carnegie and Deidre Sanders from the Sun join the programme.
We hear from the master of the Queen's music Judith Weir on being the first woman ever to have held the post in its 400 year history.
The National Lottery is 20 years old but what is it really like to hit the jackpot? Nine years ago eleven women, part of a syndicate, won £18.2 million pounds. We hear from two of those women - Sue Brusby and Sue Harris - on how the money changed their lives.
Presented by Jane Garvey.
Danny Wallace, Clare Balding, Will Self, Richard Wilson, Rebecca Front, Rob Heron and the Teapad Orchestra
In a special New Year edition from the BBC Radio Theatre, Clive Anderson is joined by Danny Wallace, Clare Balding, Richard Wilson, Will Self and Rebecca Front for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Rob Heron & The Teapad Orchestra.
Award winning comedy writer Rose Heiney creates a fictional response to the week's news.
In the week that saw rail fares increased again, coupled with post-holiday travel chaos, screenwriter and novelist Rose Heiney takes a light-hearted look at the failures of modern transport.
Steve's New Year resolution is to give up all 'pre-automobile' forms of travel. Question is, can he get home without them?
Birdman; 10:04 by Ben Lerner; Golem at Young Vic; Crisis TV drama; Kentucky Route Zero computer game
Birdman starring Michael Keaton is director Alejandro G Inarritu's first comedy and is hotly tipped for Academy Awards - does it live up to the hype?
10 04 by Ben Lerner is the poet, essayist and novelist's second work of fiction which probes the reality of his own life and in doing so raises questions about the nature of fiction and truth itself.
Golem is staged at the Young Vic by the 1927 theatre company and combines performance and live music with handcrafted animation and film to create magical filmic theatre. Inspired by Gustav Meyrink's The Golem published in 1915 - the play's message challenges our current obsession with technological gadgets.
Crisis is a new television drama on UKTV's Watch Channel starring Gillian Anderson and revolving around a mass kidnapping of a group of teenagers on a school bus. In this case the teenagers are the children of America's rich and powerful elite.
And Kentucky Route Zero, an innovative point and click computer game in 5 acts which employs storytelling techniques as well as graphics to involve the game player in the process of the narrative itself. How entertaining is it to play and how different is it to what has gone before?
Girdles, saunas, catheters and running shoes. Historically these otherwise unrelated items have all played their part in the Filibuster, the tactic of frustration, obstruction and feat of stamina that can be traced back to Roman times
Anne Treneman, political sketch writer of The Times, explores the art of the Filibuster and how in the USA where it is called 'The Soul of the Senate' it is under threat of extinction
Ann, who was born in the USA, but lives and works here in the UK, explores its rich history, hears stories of the great Filibusters like Strom Thurmond the senator from South Carolina who spoke for 24 hours 18 minutes to filibuster the 1957 Civil Rights Act
More recently Wendy Davis from Texas made headlines for her 13 hour Filibuster against changes to the states Abortion laws, she took the stand in pink running shoes, was fitted with a girdle mid-speech. It's considered to be the first social media filibuster
Opponents of it in the US sense its time has come, Ann will hear from both sides of the debate
Filibusters are never as heroic as James Stewart's in the 1939 film 'Mr Smith Goes to Washington'. They rarely have the rhetoric of Smith standing up for the people and the greater good, they are more likely to have the contents of the phone book or excerpts from children's stories.
Ann spends much of her time peering from the press gallery into the commons chamber witnessing the best, and worst of British democracy in action, and although 24 hour Filibusters never happen, talking a bill out does. Using archive from here and the USA, Radio 4 will explore the Art of the Filibuster, along with its history, and of course its future.
The fortunes of three Russian aristocratic families during the Napoleonic War.
A dynamic fresh dramatisation by Timberlake Wertenbaker of Leo Tolstoy's epic - from the translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokonsky.
There's a lively dinner party at the Rostov family home and Anna Mikhailovna Dubretskoy is in battle with Prince Vassily over the will and inheritance of the wealthy Count Bezukhov. It seems Pierre, his illegitimate son, may inherit the Count's vast fortune. Meanwhile, Andrei's decision to join the army causes tension between him and his pregnant wife, Lise.
The story moves between their past and present as Pierre, Natasha, Marya and Nikolai talk to their children about the events that shaped their lives and the lives of every Russian who lived through these troubled times.
War and Peace reflects the panorama of life at every level of Russian society in this period. The longest of 19th-century novels, it's an epic story in which historical, social, ethical and religious issues are explored on a scale never before attempted in fiction.
Paterson Joseph ...... Pierre Bezuhkov
Lesley Manville ...... Countess Rostov
John Hurt ...... Prince Bolkonsky
Alun Armstrong ...... Count Rostov
Phoebe Fox ...... Natasha Rostov
Sam Reid ...... Nikolai Rostov
Tamzin Merchant ...... Sonya Rostov
Stephen Campbell Moore ...... Andrei Bolkonsky
Natasha Little ...... Marya Bolkonsky
Roger Allam ...... General Kutuzov
Harriet Walter ...... Mikhailovna Drubetskoy
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.
Kamin Mohammadi presents three of the best recent episodes of Four Thought, each addressing a state of mind.
The talks include Amia Srinivasan on the potential benefits of anger, Mark O'Connell discussing his own constitutional ambivalence and Farrah Jarral on cheekiness.
Which politician was described by the writer Malcolm Bradbury as 'the Bertie Wooster of Marxism'? And the A horizon, B horizon, C horizon and O horizon are all layers of what?
Russell Davies returns to Radio 4 with the first contest in a new season of the evergreen general knowledge quiz, with contestants from all over Britain competing for the title Brain of Britain 2015. It's the 62nd series of the quiz, and the eventual champion will join a long and illustrious list of names which down the years has included Irene Thomas, Daphne Fowler, Kevin Ashman and Barry Simmons.
The competitors in this week's opening heat come from London, Guernsey, Bath and Norwich.
The programme also offers the customary chance for a listener to 'Beat the Brains' by suggesting ingenious questions that may stump their collective general knowledge.
Andrew Greig recounts, in poetic sequence, the tale of his open dinghy voyage from Stromness in Scapa Flow to an overnight stay on Cava island.
In a small boat in open waters, he found a new element to live in and a new metaphor for life. He captures it in a poetry sequence of moving simplicity,"in the middle of life, halfway over, we pitch on a gurly sea."
Written in six weeks, Found at Sea is a 'very wee epic', as Andrew calls it himself, about sailing, male friendship and a voyage to find a way through the rest of life by recalling the lives they've lived before.
SUNDAY 04 JANUARY 2015
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b04wrpyn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
SUN 00:15 The Wood Pushers (b04h8792)
A close encounter with the street chess players of Greenwich Village in New York, who play for money on the stone tables in Washington Square park.
For these players, chess is like life - a game of survival, of war, of tricks and traps - with many paying their bills and living costs from the money they win at the tables.
These are highly skilled chess players who take on the general public for money. Some are homeless - and a world away from the official tournament scene and stuffy formalism usually associated with the game. Chess is returned to its roots as a street-level pastime - fast, aggressive, winner takes all.
Watching some of them play, it's somewhere between street magic, confidence trick and the most serious tournament - snappy patter disguises the sharpest moves in quick time. These players don't lose often. The nearby Village chess shop is a hub where players can take a break on long winter afternoons, or after the parks are cleared at night. It's been a fixture of the Village for many years.
This programme – filled with the sounds of Washington Square and its nearby chess rooms - features a mix of characters who've been playing there for many years, and for whom chess is a spiritual anchor as well as an economic lifeline.
Producer: Simon Hollis
A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 00:30 Comic Fringes (b04fyf2x)
Series 10
The Gospel According to Judas
Short story series featuring new writing by leading comedians, recorded in August at the BBC's pop up venue at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Tonight, an irreverent tale by satirist John O'Farrell: imagine if Judas Iscariot spent his 30 pieces of silver on a creative writing class and re-drafted the books of the Gospels...
A former comedy scriptwriter for Spitting Image, O'Farrell can occasionally be spotted on such TV programmes as Grumpy Old Men, Question Time and Have I Got News for You. He has written four books: "The Man Who Forgot His Wife", "May Contain Nuts", "This Is Your Life" and "The Best a Man Can Get".
Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04wrpyq)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04wrpys)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
5.20am.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04wrpyv)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b04wrpyx)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b04wrwlw)
The bells from the church of St. Edith in the village of Monks Kirby, near Rugby.
SUN 05:45 Four Thought (b04wh7xy)
Series 4
Keeping It Personal
Darren Harris, a double paralympic athlete and mathematics graduate, draws similarities between people and prime numbers: each is indivisible and unique. In the age of big data, he makes the case for a more person-centred approach in public services. And he finds it in an unexpected place, somewhere more usually associated with a 'win at all costs' mentality: elite sport.
Producer: Giles Edwards.
SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b04wrpyz)
The latest national and international news.
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b04wrwly)
The White North Has Thy Bones
Samira Ahmed reaches for the far North, exploring how it has been perceived, dreamed and even desired. Why is there such enchantment for these snowy wastes, where death awaits so many?
She considers the Arctic obsession of the 19th century, where society clamoured for news of great explorers like Franklin and swooned at thoughts of their fate. Tales of being frozen solid, cannibalism and insanity.
Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote a short poem for the memorial to Franklin which stands in Westminster Abbey, "Not here: The white north has thy bones; and thou, heroic sailor soul, art passing on thine happier voyage now towards no earthly pole."
But this is not simply the land of explorers. Samira hears from the people who inhabit the apparently uninhabitable. There's the Inuit. What is their relationship with the environment and the creatures they share it with?
Beneath the ice flows lie submarines, fearful, lying in the dark. What of the men who live beneath these freezing waters, and what of life in the Soviet labour camps of Siberia?
With music from contemporary composer Gavin Bryars, and readings from Jules Verne and Philip Larkin, this is a journey into the far north - which represents a sublime paradise for many and, for so many others, a hell.
Produced by Kevin Dawson
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (b04wrwm0)
Animal Behaviour
How important is it to understand the behaviour of farm animals? Psychologically, are pigs, sheep and cows particularly complex? Anna Jones travels to the research headquarters of Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) in Edinburgh where scientists are looking at the relationship between farmyard behaviour, and farm productivity.
Dr Simon Turner is studying aggressiveness in pigs to try and understand why some continually pick fights - irrespective of whether they win or lose. He explains how controlled 'contests' are allowing them to gather essential data which could help the pig industry tackle a long-standing welfare problem.
Anna also looks at research aimed at finding out if defensive newly-calved beef cows make better mothers. It's a dangerous character trait, posing a serious safety risk to those handling cattle, and initial findings suggest defensiveness has no commercial benefit.
And sheep - how do their minds work? SRUC researcher Kenny Rutherford is examining the effect of pre-natal stress in ewes on their offspring, and challenges the commonly held belief that sheep are stupid.
You will never look at farm animals in the same way again.
Produced and presented by Anna Jones.
SUN 06:57 Weather (b04wrpz1)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b04wrpz3)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (b04wrwm2)
2015 look-ahead, Richard III, Church of England leadership plan
In the first 'Sunday' of the year, Edward Stourton chairs a discussion looking ahead to some of the big religious stories for 2015.
The re-interment of King Richard III at Leicester Cathedral in March will be a moment of huge historical significance and international interest. Trevor Barnes reports on the preparations for the event.
Ten years after the devastating South Asian tsunami, Saroj Pathirana speaks to Sri Lanka's Buddhist monks and nuns about how they have used their faith to counsel, heal and help those left behind.
A Vatican report looking into American women's religious communities has praised their work, despite the main group representing US nuns currently being investigated for allegedly undermining church teachings and promoting radical feminism. We speak to the group's president elect.
China says new laws in the far Western province of Xinjiang, including the banning of religious practice in public buildings, are a response to a growing threat from militant Islam. Members of the indigenous ethnic Uighur population, most of whom are Muslim, see it as an attack on religious freedom. China analyst Dr Michael Dillon explores the reasons behind the tensions.
And the Church of England's proposals to send senior clergy on leadership courses have been criticised for being full of executive management speak and barely mentioning God. So is this the kind of 'blue sky thinking' the church needs, or a case of too much 'thinking outside the box'?
Producers:
Dan Tierney
David Cook
Series producer:
Amanda Hancox
Contributors:
Dr Michael Dillon
Rev'd Canon Martyn Percy
Sister Marcia Allen
Ruth Gledhill
Sughra Ahmed
Jessica Elgot.
SUN 07:55 Radio 4 Appeal (b04wrwm4)
Magic Bus UK
Dan Snow presents The Radio 4 Appeal for Magic Bus, which trains local volunteers to mentor children living in slum areas.
Registered Charity No 1124753
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal, mark the back of the envelope 'Magic Bus UK'.
- Cheques should be made payable to Magic Bus UK.
SUN 07:57 Weather (b04wrpz7)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b04wrpz9)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b04wrwm6)
The God Who Surprises
The God Who Surprises
A service for Epiphany from Tabernacl Baptist Church, Cardiff, in which the Rev. Roy Jenkins and the Rev. Denzil John reflect on some of the unexpected situations in which God can be found. David Michael Leggett conducts the The Ardwyn Singers. Organist Janice Ball.
Producer Karen Walker.
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (b04vr10l)
The Pursuit of Happiness
A L Kennedy reflects on what it means to pursue happiness in a world where "not having enough money can be utterly miserable" and indulging our desire to acquire is also unsatisfying. The answer may lie in seeing that happiness is, "not so much a condition as a destination - it can inspire journeys ...better made in company".
Producer: Sheila Cook.
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0mj0)
Greater Hill Mynah
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Sir David Attenborough presents the mimic specialist Greater Hill Mynah from Asia. Like many members of the starling family, Greater Hill Mynah's are superb mimics with a remarkable ability to reproduce the tones of the human voice. This makes them popular as cage and now some wild populations have been severely reduced by collecting. Hill mynahs are not just vocally outstanding. They're dapper looking birds too; glossy purplish-black with a white wing-patch and wattles of bright yellow skin under their eyes and around the back of their necks. The wild birds don't impersonate people though; it's only those captive birds which are amongst some of the best mimics of the human voice.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b04wrwm8)
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 (b04wrwmb)
Kate confides in Adam, and Rob knows what 2015 should bring.
SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (b04wrwmd)
Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell
Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the scientist, Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, who is best known for her work in the field of neuroscience and stroke research. She is now President and Vice-Chancellor of Manchester University.
She claims that her decision to enrol at Queen Elizabeth College in London in the '70s was made not on the basis of their superior teaching on the function of living systems, but rather the institution's proximity to Kensington High Street. Anyway, she gained a first class degree and then bagged a PhD in just two years.
Could it be that her interest in how we keep the human body alive and functioning began when, aged eight, she contracted primary tuberculosis and was so ill she spent 18 months at home?
She says, "Like most academics my fate was sealed during my PhD, I fell in love with research and vowed I would do it until retirement. I was also sure that I would do my utmost to avoid any of those nasty administrative jobs."
Producer: Christine Pawlowsky.
SUN 12:00 News Summary (b04wrpzw)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 The Unbelievable Truth (b04vk9np)
Series 14
Episode 1
David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents.
Lloyd Langford, David O'Doherty, Susan Calman and Josh Widdicombe are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as penguins, spoons, dolls and letters.
The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith, the team behind Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.
Produced by Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (b04ws12f)
Your food science questions for Harold McGee
Sheila Dillon is joined by Harold McGee to answer your food science questions.
Harold McGee is fascinated by what we are actually doing to our food when we prepare and cook it. His research and writing have inspired many chefs, including Heston Blumenthal. Today he answers questions from listeners, food writers and chefs about the chemistry of food and cooking.
Producer: Sarah Langan.
SUN 12:57 Weather (b04wrq05)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b04ws12h)
Global news and analysis; presented by Mark Mardell.
SUN 13:30 The Invisible Age (b04vk9nw)
Let Yourself Go
News reports about increased longevity invariably come with warnings and worries. Matthew Sweet asks whether we could turn society's pessimism about our increasing old age into an opportunity to gain a new perspective on life.
He spends time with some of the oldest and greatest thinkers, who share with him their insights on ageing. He travels to talk to writers who use their old age to write about the privileged vantage point they enjoy.
In the midst of a public conversation about old age which centres on the cost and loss of a long life, Matthew talks to people in their 80s and 90s about the gains that old age can bring. Matthew likens his conversations with the so called 'oldest-old' to meeting explorers of a new territory. He is curious to ask them what they can share with us about the things they have learnt and the things they can see.
Produced by Catherine Carr
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b04vqwyp)
The Garden Museum
Peter Gibbs chairs this week's edition from The Garden Museum, London. Chris Beardshaw, Pippa Greenwood and Bunny Guinness join him to answer a range of horticultural questions.
We also hear all about the Garden Museum's archive project.
Produced by Howard Shannon
Assistant Producer: Hannah Newton
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
This week's questions and answers:
Q. What English plant would you recommend for a garden in China?
A. Bunny would give you ten English Roses - probably the 'Munstead Wood' variety.
Pippa suggests Primroses and Harebells and a Bramley Apple Tree.
Meanwhile, Chris recommends a lawn as a way of uniting the various areas in your garden and giving the garden some breathing space.
Q. As a reformed Foxglove lover, could the panel recommend a variety with a prolonged flowering season that would add colour to a shady garden?
A. There is the perennial Foxglove which is pink but it doesn't go to seed so they would have to be propagated. There are so many different colours to choose from, from brown through to apricot.
Q. I have two fruit trees in my garden that are fruiting well but at the centre of every fruit is a maggot. What is it and what can I do about it?
A. It's the larvae of the Coddling Moth and you can put out a pheromone trap to attract the moths to a sticky end and prevent the larvae from ruining your fruit. Hang one out in two months' time. Don't use grease bands as they are designed to catch winter moths rather than Coddling Moths. But if you had a problem with winter moths, use grease paint rather than bands.
Q. My friend has two ponds linked with a waterfall, the pond is filled with frogs and marginal plants. Should she keep the pump running through the winter months?
A. We usually recommend turning off water features as the frosts come as this gives you an opportunity do a bit of a clean up but if your friend kept it running in the winter that wouldn't be a problem. The reason we keep water features running through the summer is to ensure the water is well oxygenated when activity is high but as things in the pond slow down in the winter months it's not necessary to keep the pump running.
Q. I've just become a first time allotment holder. The allotment is currently covered in thick, dense plants and a few weeds. What's the best way to clear the plot?
A. If the grass is Couch grass, the panel recommend using glyphosate. Apply when the grass and weeds are in full growth and then plant plugs of seeds through the dead grass. Alternatively you could fork it out. Do not be tempted to use a powered cultivator as this will just split the weeds and make them multiply!
Q. Does it bother the panel that in period dramas, there is never any sight of the garden staff?
A. Chris gets very annoyed at the horticultural inaccuracies in period dramas, especially when he sees Conifers in Robin Hood!
Q. How could I build up a thriving Mycorrizal population along a long plane tree avenue? There is only a two-metre soil depth as the London Underground runs beneath!
A. You could try putting deciduous bark of a 15cm depth across the whole canopy spread of the trees. Don't worry about the soil depth. The Mycorrizal fungi will spread out and harvest the resources from the ground and feed it back into the tree. Think of it as an extension of the tree roots. Try to avoid soil compaction as this will damage the Mycorrizal organisms.
Q. I have a Pittosporum that I would like to reduce in width but not height. When should I do this and how?
A. They are very tolerant plants so you could just cut the sides but maybe wait until March to do this. To make sure it looks good you could do this over a couple of years so it doesn't look so severe. Wait until it has the first buds before pruning hard. Chris suggests sneaking up on it when it least expects it and letting light in underneath to give it a breath of fresh life!
Q. Can the panel recommend a good thug that will take on Creeping Buttercup? I have clay soil.
A. Trachystemon Orientale is a kind of Borage that is very attractive and would take on the buttercups and any other weeds. When it starts to take over a bit you can trash it down and it will give you lots of new flowers. Pippa loves Buttercups and thinks that you should learn to love them but, if you really can't, try planting Hypernicums. Periwinkles would also work.
SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (b04ws12m)
Sunday Omnibus
Fi Glover introduces conversations from Devon, Wales and Leeds about magic, community and fatherhood, proving once again that it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess.
SUN 15:00 The Barchester Chronicles (b04ws12p)
Anthony Trollope's The Small House at Allington
Episode 3
Anthony Trollope's The Small House at Allington by Michael Symmons Roberts
As Lily Dale fights scarlet fever, Dr Crofts is a frequent visitor at the Small House. His patient, however, is not the only focus of his attentions. In London, Johnny Eames struggles to extricate himself from his tangled romance with Amelia. Meanwhile Crosbie begins to understand just exactly what kind of life he is marrying into as preparations for his wedding with Lady Alexandrina move on apace.
MRS BAXTER .... Maggie Steed
LILY DALE .... Scarlett Alice Johnston
JOHNNY EAMES .... Sam Barnett
CROSBIE .... Blake Ritson
SQUIRE DALE .... Clive Mantle
LORD DE GUEST / SIR RAFFLE BUFFLE ... David Bamber
MRS DALE / MRS HEARN .... Alexandra Mathie
CRADELL .... Griffin Stevens
BELL DALE .... Lisa Brookes
DR CROFTS .... Lucas Smith
AMELIA/ ALEXANDRINA .... Emily Pithon
Music composed by David Robin, Jeff Meegan and Julian Gallant
Written by Michael Symmons Roberts
Directed by Gary Brown
Produced by Charlotte Riches
The Small House of Allington is the fifth instalment of The Barchester Chronicles, Anthony Trollope's much-loved series of witty, gently satirical stories of provincial life set within the fictional cathedral town of Barchester and the surrounding county of Barsetshire. With a focus on the lives, loves and tribulations of the local clergy and rural gentry, the canvas is broad and colourful, with a wonderful set of iconic characters whose lives we become intimately involved in as they grow up, grow old and fall in or out of love and friendship across the years.
SUN 16:00 Bookclub (b04ws1xm)
Marina Lewycka - A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
James Naughtie's first guest on Bookclub for 2015 is Marina Lewycka.
Marina was born in Kiel, Germany, after the war, and moved to England with her family when she was about a year old.
Her first novel, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, has sold more than a million copies in the UK alone and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, longlisted for the Man Booker and won the Bollinger Everyman Prize for Comic Fiction 2005.
Nadezhda and her sister Vera are dismayed when their eighty-four year old father falls in love with a thirty-six year old Ukrainian divorcee. Their campaign to oust Valentina unearths family secrets going back fifty years into some of Europe's darkest history, and the two sisters must put aside a lifetime of feuding to save their father.
James Naughtie presents and a group of readers - including some from the Ukrainian community in London - join in the discussion.
Presenter : James Naughtie
Interviewed guest : Marina Lewycka
Producer: Dymphna Flynn
February's Bookclub choice : When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr.
SUN 16:30 India's Beats: The Hungry Generation (b04ws24p)
Allen Ginsberg arrived in early 1960s Calcutta to discover a collective of angry young poets whose anti-establishment antics were uncannily reminiscent of his own past. This is the story of the so-called Hungry Generation.
Fifty years later, we follow in the footsteps of the Beat Generation to the literary centre of India and go in search of the Hungryalist poets. Who were they? Where did they fit with a rich Bengali literary tradition that includes the great Rabindranath Tagore? What eventually led to their arrests, imprisonment and disbandment?
The Hungry Generation were a special breed - born in the slums, but highly educated and primed for a revolution in both literature and society. Through their verse, they broke strict rules of Bengali poetry as well as social taboos. In their actions they rubbished 'bourgeois' Bengali polity - consciously acting without manners or etiquette, burping, farting and using bad language.
They also used clever stunts to attack local officials and politicians, and held readings in socially unacceptable venues such as brothels, opium dens and graveyards. Hungryalist poets, such as the Roychoudhary brothers, and Utpal Kumar Basu, stood for the outsiders of society.
Eventually the authorities had enough. Hungryalists were rounded up and arrested on charges of obscenity and conspiracy against the state. Ginsberg attempted to intervene, sending letters of support. US literary journals carried the story and printed Hungryalist poetry. The movement floundered.
But despite this, we discover that the Hungryalist anti-establishment spirit is very much still alive in modern-day Calcutta today.
Produced by Dom Byrne
A Blakeway production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 17:00 Teaching Economics After the Crash (b04svjbj)
At universities from Glasgow to Kolkata, economics students are fighting their tutors over how to teach the subject in the wake of the crash. The Guardian's senior economics commentator, Aditya Chakrabortty, reports from the frontline of this most unusual and important academic war.
The banking crash plunged economies around the world into crisis - but it also created questions for economics itself. Even the Queen asked why hardly any economists saw the meltdown coming. Yet economics graduates still roll out of exam halls and off to government departments or the City with much the same toolkit that, just five years ago, produced a massive crash.
Now economics students around the world are demanding a radical change of course. In a manifesto signed by 65 university economics associations from over 30 different countries, students decry a 'dramatic narrowing of the curriculum' that they say prefers algebra to the real world and teaches them there's only one way to run an economy.
As fights go, this one is desperately ill-matched - in one corner, young people fighting to change what they're taught; in the other, the academics who've built careers researching and teaching the subject. Yet the outcome matters to all of us, as it is a battle over the ideas that underpin how we run our economies.
Aditya meets the students leading arguing for a rethink of economics. He also talks to major figures from the worlds of economics and finance, including George Soros, the Bank of England's chief economist Andy Haldane, and Cambridge author Ha-Joon Chang.
Produced by Eve Streeter
A Greenpoint production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 17:40 From Fact to Fiction (b04wnpxk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b04wrq08)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 17:57 Weather (b04wrq0g)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04wrq0n)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b04ws2h7)
In Gerry Northam's Pick Of The Week we drop in on one of Frank Sinatra's greatest moments on stage and re-create Richard Briers' visit to Terry-Thomas in his 1980s retirement home in Majorca. Andrew Motion worries what he'll look like sitting for a new portrait. A Republican Senator breaks off from a speech to read his children a bedtime story live on tv from the U.S. Congress. And the 9 year-old Nigel Slater finds biscuits comforting after the trauma of his mother's death.
SUN 19:00 The Archers (b04ws35y)
Adam has jetted off with Ian to Miami, leaving a disgruntled Brian to deal with the lambing on his own - with the help of Phoebe today. She tries to cheer Brian up as she learns. Meanwhile, Adam texts to say he and Ian are having a great time. Phoebe's looking forward to Jennifer's party on Wednesday, for which she's helping with the cooking. Kate's also keen to help - Phoebe suggests she'd be better away from the kitchen
Looking to the new year, Rob broaches with Helen the subject of having a baby - making the point that Henry seems lonely. She'd like to get the wedding organised first, though. Helen fishes to know more about Charlie, following his New Year's Eve kiss with Adam (which she keeps to herself).
Overworked Brian has tried to contact Matt to suggest a drink, Brian feels the ball is in Adam's court when it comes to the farm. Jennifer's pleased that Adam and Charlie haven't fallen out personally.
Pip and Phoebe look at photos from New Year's Eve - it seems Phoebe has an admirer called Alex. Kate's trying a bit too hard to bond with Phoebe - she feels a responsibility to be her spiritual guide. Jennifer suggests Kate starts by focusing on their mother-daughter relationship.
SUN 19:15 The Rest is History (b04ws4hy)
Series 1
Episode 4
Frank Skinner loves history, but just doesn't know much of it.
This comedy discussion show with celebrity guests promises to help him find out more about it.
With David Baddiel, Emma Kennedy and historian in residence Dr Kate Williams
Frank and company navigate their way through the annals of time, picking out and chewing over the funniest, oddest, and most interesting moments in history.
Producers: Dan Schreiber and Justin Pollard
An Avalon production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in January 2015.
SUN 19:45 Goodnight, Vienna (b04ws4j0)
A Bird in Vienna
A multi-contributor series of specially-commissioned radio stories about this most beguiling of cities. To the outsider, Vienna can be a state of mind as much as an actual place.
Episode 3 (of 3): A Bird In Vienna by Louise Stern
An old woman in America remembers a moment from her Viennese childhood in the 1930s.
Louise Stern grew up in Fremont, California and is the fourth generation of her family to be born deaf. She now lives and works in London as an artist and writer. Chattering, her first collection of short stories, was published in 2010. The Electric Box, her first commission for radio, featured in the series 'Where Were You...' in 2012. Her experimental showcase, Latido, was broadcast in 2013.
Reader: Eleanor Bron
Produced by Jeremy Osborne.
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 20:00 More or Less (b04vqx64)
Numbers of the Year 2014
Tim Harford and guests look back at some of the weird and wonderful numbers of 2014. Featuring contributions from Evan Davis, Sir David Spiegelhalter, Helen Joyce, Nick Robinson, Helen Arney, Pippa Malmgren, Paul Lewis and Carlos Vilalta.
SUN 20:30 Last Word (b04vqx62)
Debbie Purdy, David Ryall, Willy Burgdorfer, Dame Mary Glen Haig, Graeme Goodall
Julian Worricker on
Debbie Purdy, the right-to-die campaigner who won a landmark court ruling to clarify the law on assisted suicide.
The actor, David Ryall, who had starring roles on stage, in film and on television.
Dr Willy Burgdorfer, an entomologist who discovered the bacterium that causes Lyme disease.
Dame Mary Glen Haig, who fenced for Britain at four Olympic Games and then became one of the first women on the International Olympic Committee.
And Graeme Goodall, the music producer and record label owner, who was a key figure in the early days of Jamaica's recording industry.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (b04wnkcz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b04wrwm4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 today]
SUN 21:30 In Business (b04wsg1n)
21st Century Unlimited
21st CENTURY UNLIMITED
New ways of doing business are making people think hard about how companies function. Peter Day hears how these alternative economies work, and what they might do.
Producer: Sandra Kanthal.
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b04wsg1q)
Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.
SUN 22:45 What the Papers Say (b04wsh4x)
Kevin Maguire of The Mirror analyses how the newspapers are covering the biggest stories.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (b04wgwbm)
Michael Keaton; The Theory Of Everything; Doubles all round
With Francine Stock.
Batman star Michael Keaton discusses the similarities between his career and that of his character in Birdman, an actor making a come-back after finding fame playing a winged super-hero.
Director James Marsh reveals what Stephen Hawking really thought of his bio-pic The Theory Of Everything.
Enemy, in which Jake Gyllenhaal plays a man haunted by his doppelganger, is the second movie released in the last 12 months about doubles. The other, The Double, was based on a story by Dostoevsky and directed by Richard Ayoade, who explains the technical difficulties of getting an actor to talk to himself.
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b04wrwly)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 05 JANUARY 2015
MON 00:00 Midnight News (b04wrq5t)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (b04vr5j0)
Self-help and Self-improvement
Self-help & self-improvement. As thoughts turn to resolutions and making a fresh start in 2015, Laurie Taylor wonders if his scepticism about self-help books and self-improvement programmes is well founded. He goes for advice to Christine Whelan - Professor in the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin and a self-help author. Further enlightenment is provided by Meg John Barker - Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the Open University - who has studied self-help literature dealing with sex and relationships and has also written what she describes as 'an anti self-help book'. And Rebecca Coleman - Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London - explains how TV makeover shows and online dieting sites create powerfully gendered and class-based messages about changing our bodies.
Producer: Torquil MacLeod.
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b04wrwlw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04wrq5z)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04wrq63)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04wrq65)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (b04wrq67)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04wtchn)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Reverend Sharon Grenham-Toze.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (b04wtchq)
Sustainable Intensification, Treasure Hunting, Milk Prices
This week the movers and shakers of British agriculture will gather for two key events - the Oxford Farming Conference and the Oxford Real Farming Conference. Sustainability will be a major theme at both events - can farming meet the challenge of feeding the world's growing population without destroying the environment? We meet an intensive chicken farmer in Somerset and ask if her business is sustainable.
The National Farmers Union is warning farmers to have agreements in place if they're allowing treasure hunters on to their land.
It follows the discovery of a million pounds worth of ancient coins by a metal detectorist in a farmer's field in Buckinghamshire. The 5000 coins bearing the heads of Ethelred the Unready and Canute were buried in a lead bucket.
Six years ago, the Staffordshire Hoard - worth around three million pounds - was found on a farm in Brownhills. It was the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver ever found, anywhere in the world.
So, for some farmers metal detecting can be a lucrative diversification! But the NFU's rural surveyor, Louise Staples, tells Sybil Ruscoe it's essential for farmers to have a clear set of rules.
MON 05:56 Weather (b04wrq69)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0n4w)
Raggiana Bird-of-Paradise
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Liz Bonnin presents the displaying Raggiana bird-of-paradise from Papua New Guinea. An explosion of colour flashes across the tree canopy of a rainforest: male Raggiana birds-of-paradise, one of the most spectacularly coloured birds in the world, are displaying to one another. The Raggiana or Count Raggi's bird-of-paradise is Papua New Guinea's national bird and it's easy to see why. His yellow head and green throat are eye-catching enough but even more flamboyant are the long tufted flank feathers which he can raise into a fan of fine reddish-orange plumes. Males gather at traditional display sites quivering these enormous flaming plumes like cabaret dancers as they cling to an advantageous branch. The urgency of their display is underlined by frantic calls which echo through the canopy, in the hope he can impress the much plainer female to mate with him.
MON 06:00 Today (b04wtchs)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Magna Carta (b04wtchv)
The Road to Magna Carta
Melvyn Bragg begins a major new series marking the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, one of the best known of all historical documents. In this first programme he explores the world of medieval England, examining the political turmoil and confused legal system which resulted in a major crisis in the early 13th century. He charts the developments that culminated in a tense stand-off between King John and his barons in 1215 - the backdrop to the agreement of Magna Carta later that year.
With David Carpenter, Professor of Medieval History at King's College London; Nicholas Vincent, Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia; Cressida Williams, Cathedral and City Archivist at Canterbury Cathedral; and Louise Wilkinson, Professor of Medieval History at Canterbury Christ Church University.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
MON 09:30 Just So Science (b0477m6s)
Series 2
How the Camel Got His Hump
Returning for a second series, Vivienne Parry considers the animals of Rudyard Kipling's much loved Just So Stories for Children. Assisted by researchers of 'infinite sagacity' (that means they're awfully clever) she'll discover if science can yet explain how the camel got his hump, the kangaroo his hop or the elephant his trunk. Kipling's tales are brought to life by the actor Samuel West.
In How the Camel Got his Hump, Kipling's beast is as grumpy as they come and is punished for his laziness. Vivienne talks to Dr Lulu Skidmore, Director of the Camel Reproduction Centre in Dubai about the tricky business of Camel IVF and the truth about just how grumpy (and lazy) these beasts are. The reader is Samuel West. Producer: Rami Tzabar.
MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b04wtchx)
Different Every Time - Robert Wyatt
Episode 1
Jazz, pop and word games, along with various family and friends influence Wyatt's early years, before he starts to drum and sing for 1960's group - The Soft Machine.
Marcus O'Dair's biography of Robert Wyatt, a musical cult cum national treasure.
A happy childhood surrounded by influential family, plus a love of jazz and a sense of the absurd. Then the young Wyatt starts to play drums...
Read by Julian Rhind-Tutt.
Abridged in five parts by Katrin Williams:
Producer: Duncan Minshull
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2015.
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04wtchz)
Can Choosing to Live with Less Make You Happier?
How would you rate your satisfaction with life and your sense of well being? Could living with less make you happier? Dr Teresa Belton joins Jane Garvey to talk about the ideas in her book, Happier People, Healthier Planet. Listeners can call from
8am, so if you would like to take part the number is 03700 100 444 [calls cost no more than to 01, 02 landline numbers], or you can tweet the show using @BBCWomansHour or send an email on the website.
Presenter: Jane Garvey
Interviewee: Teresa Belton
Producer: Lucinda Montefiore.
MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b04wtcj1)
The Corrections
The Failure
First ever dramatisation of Jonathan Franzen's exuberant novel about the tribulations of a dysfunctional Midwestern family, starring Richard Schiff (The West Wing), Maggie Steed, Colin Stinton and Julian Rhind-Tutt. Dramatised by Marcy Kahan.
Episode 1: The Failure - Chip Lambert arrives at La Guardia airport, New York, to meet his parents, Alfred and Enid, and take them back to his Manhattan apartment for lunch. But Alfred appears to be in a bad way, and Chip has his own troubles - his academic career has ended in disgrace, his girlfriend appears to be dumping him and his semi-autobiographical screenplay is in need of urgent corrections.
Directed by Emma Harding.
MON 11:00 This Farming Life (b04wtcj3)
Episode 2
In the second of a two part series, Charlotte Smith follows three more farming families based around Sedgemoor Market in Somerset to look at the biggest challenges they face and how they're dealing with them.
Sam Passmore has just become a dad aged 41 and fatherhood has made him reflect on how his team can get a work/life balance while also experimenting with milking three times a day with his dairy herd. He and his own father have different ideas about how best to do things. Finding reliable milkers to work unsociable hours is something of a challenge.
Meanwhile Jeremy Walker likes to wear several hats, on top of being a farmer. While he keeps an eye on the harvest and the chickens, he's also a magistrate, committee member and soon-to-be mentor. But as he turns 70, he's not happy at being retired from certain roles as "To retire is to expire".
John Small is several years past 'official' retirement age but still has 1500 sheep to see to. He hopes a 'share farming' venture will help a talented shepherdess expand her flock and help him ease off the pressure but do farmers like him ever really retire?
All three are also facing pressures on their land - with losses to nature and development, tenancies being reviewed or finding places for the sheep to graze, Charlotte asks them how they're managing to keep their businesses afloat.
Presented by Charlotte Smith
Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.
MON 11:30 The Best Laid Plans (b04wtcj5)
A Slight Admin Error
Ardal O'Hanlon plays Smallbone - an idiot angel who's sent to earth to fix his mistakes.
In this first episode, Smallbone learns to use his new human body and ends up taking on the CEO of Grapefruit, a powerful technology company that wants to knock down the local library to expand their store.
In 1885, God (Geoff McGivern) nodded off. In 2015, he awoke to discover that his idiot servant, the angel Smallbone, had accidentally handed out God's plans for the next millennium when he was only meant to hand out plans for the next century. A thousand years of leisurely human progression has been crammed into the last 130. No wonder we're all so stressed. We weren't even meant to have pocket calculators until 2550.
Not only that, but God's blueprints should have run out in the mid-eighties – but we kept going. Humans are now inventing things God never even dreamed of - mobile phones, wireless internet and Made in Chelsea.
Smallbone is cast down to Earth in human form by God, tasked with the dauntingly vague mission of 'reversing the last thirteen decades of human progression'. The problem is that Smallbone is the world's biggest fan - he loves modern technology and his new human body, and he becomes distracted by everything that he's meant to destroy. Especially escalators.
Smallbone.......Ardal O'Hanlon
God.................Geoff McGivern
Tanya..............Esther Smith
Toby................Mike Wozniak
Susan..............Ruth Bratt
Supporting Roles: Duncan Wisbey and Ruth Bratt
Written by Mark Daydy
Produced by Ben Worsfield
A Lucky Giant production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2015.
MON 12:00 News Summary (b04wrq6c)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 Home Front (b04wtcj7)
5 January 1915 - Isabel Graham
The women of Folkestone struggle to help returning soldiers suffering from frostbite.
Written by: Katie Hims
Directed and produced by: Lucy Collingwood
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
MON 12:15 You and Yours (b04wtcj9)
Energy Prices, Posthumus Birth Certificates, Retail Ombudsman
Wholesale gas prices have dropped 20% since the energy companies last raised their tariffs. So when will the saving be passed on to us? A twenty percent fall in the cost of gas could represent a potential ten percent saving on a dual fuel bill. But will it happen?
In the first of a series of four pieces asking the question "Who would want to run a small business?" Shari Vahl hears how little consumer-style legal protection exists for small businesses when they trade with each other, and with bigger suppliers and customers.
Shortly after a baby is born you register the birth. If the parents are married, then both names automatically go on the birth certificate. But if they're not married, then the mother and father have to be there in person to make sure both names go on. But what if that's not possible, because the father of the baby has died before the birth is registered?
If you're looking to save money - some people suggest getting your house assessed to make sure it's in the right council tax band. That's because you could be one of the thousands of people in England and Wales who are in the wrong band. And that might mean you could be in line for not only a discount on your current bill, but also a rebate dating back more than 20 years.
But as with anything in life, there are always some people who want in on this 'free money'. They've been approaching households offering to do the paperwork for them. But for a price. And you can do it for free.
Whilst we're all looking for cheaper food, have we and the supermarkets forgotten about ethics? Last month the British Retail Consortium reported that food prices had dropped for the first time since 2006. Do we still care that the eggs we buy are free range, the meat we buy has been sustainably sourced, and that the suppliers of our chosen supermarket have been given a good deal?
Consumer rights lawyer, Dean Dunham, has been appointed as the first Retail Ombudsman. The service can be used by anyone who's complained to a shop and the dispute hasn't been resolved. The slight drawback though is that shops don't have to be part of it. They can stay outside of the service if they want to. He says shoppers who can't afford a lawyer can now come to him instead.
MON 12:57 Weather (b04wrq6f)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 13:00 World at One (b04wtgjn)
Analysis of current affairs reports, presented by Martha Kearney.
MON 13:45 Self Orbits CERN (b04wtgjq)
A Naked Lunch
Will Self embarks on a 50 kilometre walking tour of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN just outside Geneva.
Following the course of the Collider through the French and Swiss countryside, Will stops at regular intervals to descend to the tunnel and view the experiments below. He aims to complete the circuit entirely on foot.
Invited to 'feel the wonder' of particle physics, Will is unconvinced. At lunch with his CERN hosts, he questions them closely on the rationale for their work.
And as Will's journey gets under way, far from wondrous, he very soon finds himself wondering about his own capacity for misunderstanding - expressing concerns that his walking tour may be a complete waste of time.
Producer: Laurence Grissell.
MON 14:00 The Archers (b04ws35y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Pilgrim by Sebastian Baczkiewicz (b04wtgjs)
Series 6
Ouldmeadow Jack
by Sebastian Baczkiewicz.
3 of 4
Still in search of gold to rescue the people trapped in Hartley's mine, Pilgrim comes to Ouldmeadow where he helps an old friend make a final river trip.
CAST
Pilgrim ..... Paul Hilton
George ..... Karl Johnson
Baz ..... Paul Ready
Val ..... Elaine Claxton
Maeva ..... Roslyn Hill
Directed by Marc Beeby
MON 15:00 Brain of Britain (b04wtgjv)
(2/17)
Which South American country owns Robinson Crusoe Island? And which punctuation mark is used in maths to stand for the factorial of an integer?
Russell Davies puts these and many other questions to the contenders in the second heat of the 2015 series. This week they come from Leicestershire, Hampshire, East Sussex and the West Midlands. Each will be hoping he or she can win a place in the semi-finals and perhaps stand a chance of adding their name to the illustrious list of Brain of Britain champions.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (b04ws12f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 The Lipinski (b04v2lyk)
The startling 300-year journey of a 'golden period' Stradivarius violin - through the lives of geniuses, dictators, refugees, ordinary people and the thieves who stole it violently in 2014.
An art crime story is the beginning of a journey around the world - and through varied lives and cultures - tracing the history of the Lipinski Stradivarius violin which left the hands of the master Antonio Stradivari in 1715.
In February 2014, Milwaukee Symphony leader Frank Almond was beaten and tasered after a sell-out performance - and the $6 million violin was snatched from his hands. National US media overload followed, as the instrument had become the blue-collar city's emblem of accessible high culture. The programme explores its impact not on the musical elite, but on the life of the city and its regular people.
And from the crime scene, we get into the rich international cast and stories.
Memories are shared by Evi Liivak, an Estonian violinist whose father was murdered by the Gestapo and who played in Second World War refugee camps before marrying one of the main translators at the Nuremberg War Crime Trials and coming to America.
Plus Peter Voight the Sussex luthier whose family have been making and repairing violins across Europe since the 17th century, the lawyer of Universal Allah, the Milwaukee barber imprisoned for the 2014 theft, and the local Police Chief who led the investigation.
Producer: Peter Curran
A Foghorn Company production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2014.
MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (b04wth54)
Moses
Moses has always been good box office even before Ridley Scott's blockbuster movie hit the cinema screens on Boxing Day. There was Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments; the cartoon Prince of Egypt. It's a great story - Ancient Egyptian pharaohs and pyramids, babies in baskets, plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, and a great chase.
The story of Moses is the seminal one for Jews; without him they would never have become a people. But he's important for Muslims and Christians too. And the story of a people being rescued from slavery and journeying to the Promised Land has been claimed by countless groups down through the ages.
Ernie Rea is joined by Maureen Kendler, teaching fellow at the London School of Jewish studies, Shuruq Naguib, lecturer in Islamic Studies at Lancaster University, and the Rev Keith Hebden, Anglican Priest in Nottingham and author of "Seeking Justice: The Radical Compassion of Jesus.
Producer: Rosie Dawson.
MON 17:00 PM (b04wth56)
PM at
5pm- Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04wrq6h)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 The Unbelievable Truth (b04wth58)
Series 14
Episode 2
David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents.
Ed Byrne, Henning Wehn, Holly Walsh and Richard Osman are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as Ireland, rules, London and beavers.
The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith, the team behind Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.
Produced by Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio
MON 19:00 The Archers (b04wth5b)
With Justin snapping up the Brookfield property, Bert and Freda are worried about their tenancy of the bungalow - Freda's nerves can't take much more. Carol's supportive, reminding Bert he has rights and the law on his side.
Meanwhile, Jennifer's keen to get the Westbury Courier to help with her SAVE publicity - with other papers being unhelpful. She got the contact from Carol. Bert complains that the Courier wouldn't publish his poems.
Carol admires Kate for getting onto her advanced diploma course. Jennifer met Carol's son Richard yesterday and Carol throws her by asking about it.
Kenton has big plans for his Brookfield money - as well as investing in his and Jolene's future, he'll also support Fallon's Tea Room business.
Pip arranges some farm visits with David and Ruth for this week and next. David's concerned about the extra cost they'll incur in coping with extreme weather once they've moved to Hadley Haugh. Pip remains keen to invest in a new system including robotic milking and new housing. In a private moment with David, Ruth remembers last year and her miscarriage. She admits that all their recent problems have made her feel down - they're getting through a lot of money - how much more are they going to drain away before they can move north?
MON 19:15 Front Row (b04wth5d)
David Tennant, Costa Prize category winners, Alicia Vikander, January music
As Broadchurch returns for a second series, David Tennant discusses what we can expect from tonight's opening episode and how the experience of appearing in the US re-make has informed his approach to the role.
Costa Book Awards director Bud McLintock announces the prize winners in the fields of novel, first novel, poetry collection, children's book and biography and critic Stephanie Merritt is in the studio with her response to the list.
Swedish actress Alicia Vikander discusses playing Vera Brittain in the adaptation of Testament of Youth, one of eight films she's starring in this year.
We're in the dark days of the new year and each evening this week on Front Row there will be an encapsulation of January. We start with a performance by Tim van Eyken, specially recorded for Front Row, of an ancient song, 'On Christmas Day it Happened So'. What happened was that a farmer went ploughing on the old Christmas Day, 6th January. Bad mistake: he was swallowed up by the earth.
Producer: Ellie Bury
Presenter: John Wilson.
MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b04wtcj1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
MON 20:00 Mindfulness: Panacea or Fad? (b04xmqdd)
In little more than a few decades mindfulness has gone from being a specialist element of Buddhist teaching to the front cover of Time magazine. It's the must have app for the stars, courses in it are advertised in the back of all the glossies, businesses use it to reduce staff stress and boost productivity. It's even prescribed on the NHS for anxiety and depression. This is the story of "mindfulness" - from its roots in the Buddhist practice of meditation to today's multi-billion dollar, worldwide industry. Devoted followers hail it as a cure-all for the ills of modern life. Or is this just another health fad, destined for disparagement, like homeopathy? And what do Buddhists feel about their heritage being westernised, secularised and commercialised?
Presenter: Emma Barnett. Producer: Phil Pegum.
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (b04wgwb9)
Colombia - Where the Truth Lies Buried
In Comuna 13, one of Medellin's poorest and most violent districts, there is a giant rubbish dump - la escombrera. Local people say it's where the truth lies buried. They're talking about the disappeared - dozens of victims of Colombia's bloody, civil conflict concealed beneath the mountains of junk.
La escombrera stands in contrast to the 'Medellin Miracle' - the city's transformation over two decades from the darkest days of Pablo Escobar and his drug trafficking cartel, to its triumph in being voted the world's most innovative.
For Crossing Continents, Linda Pressly reports on the move to begin digging for human remains.
MON 21:00 Shared Planet (b04wtjd2)
Lemurs out on a Limb
The lemurs of Madagascar are the most endangered mammals on earth - driven to the edge of survival by habitat loss and hunting. Many different lemurs inhabit different parts of the island's forests but as these are cleared for development, food and fuel, so the lemurs are disappearing from the face of the earth. Monty Don explores what is being done to save these endearing mammals, including communities working together to find alternative ways of living that allows them to live in peace. Eco-tourism, community conservation projects and education are all being used to help local people as well as tourists value the lemurs, but is it too little too late? And is there the political will to save them?
MON 21:30 Magna Carta (b04wtchv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b04wth74)
Labour anger over Conservative "dodgy dossier"
Conservatives accuse Opposition of making £20 billion worth of unfunded spending pledges
MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04wv09d)
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher
Offences against the Person
In Hilary Mantel's story the consequences of an illicit affair play out. At a Manchester solicitor's office Vicky, a precocious but conflicted junior clerk is observing:
"I guessed why Nicolette had moved across the Square. It was more discreet for a senior partner to keep an affair extra-mural."
Reader: Rebekah Staton
Abridger: Jules Wilkinson
Producer: Simon Richardson.
MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (b04vkl1s)
Why do we laugh?
Michael Rosen finds out why we laugh and why we cry, with neuroscientists Sophie Scott and Sam Evans, and linguist Laura Wright. It's probably not why you think... And does it matter if laughter and crying are real or false, in terms of their effect on us? Producer Beth O'Dea.
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (b04wtrll)
Sean Curran reports from Westminster.
TUESDAY 06 JANUARY 2015
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b04wrq80)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b04wtchx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04wrq82)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04wrq84)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04wrq86)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b04wrq88)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04wtwfg)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Reverend Sharon Grenham-Toze.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b04wtwfj)
Schmallenberg update; Oxford Real Farming Conference
UK agriculture has been focussing on the wrong priorities and now needs wholesale reform, according to a new report from the New Economics Foundation. "Redefining Success in Food and Agriculture" will be presented at the Oxford Real Farming Conference, which starts today. It claims that UK farming is unsustainable, too energy-intensive, and socially unjust in its use of land. Anna Hill talks to the report's author, Stephen Devlin.
As the lambing season gets underway once more, Farming Today has an update on the situation with the Schmallenberg virus. It's carried by infected midges, and was first identified in England in 2012. Since then, many farmers have chosen to vaccinate. What's the outlook for lambing 2015? We ask the Chief Executive of the National Sheep Association.
There's an exciting year ahead for a farming couple in Leicestershire. At a time when most farm tenancies are for terms of less than seven years, Ben and Tori Stanley have managed to secure a twenty-five year contract. We talk to them as they start making plans for a very long-term farming future.
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Emma Campbell.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0nhb)
Spoon-billed Sandpiper
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Liz Bonnin presents the diminutive spoon-billed sandpiper of the high Russian tundra. Spoon-billed sandpipers are wading birds, no bigger than a house sparrow. They have rust-coloured feathers and a black, spoon-shaped bill for sifting tiny creatures from the mud or catching insects on the tundra of eastern Russia, where they breed. In winter they fly down to south-east Asian estuaries. Here they are increasingly threatened by the reclamation of mudflats for development and by local people who trap the waders in fine nests to eat. Today, there may be fewer than a thousand birds left. Now conservationists have taken some birds into captivity to establish a breeding stock, but others are being helped on their breeding grounds by headstarting, whereby adults are encouraged to lay a second clutch of eggs after the first are removed. Its hope that this work, plus encouraging local hunters in Asia to release any sandpipers caught in nets, will secure the spoon-billed sandpiper for future generations.
TUE 06:00 Today (b04wtwfl)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 Magna Carta (b04wtwfn)
Runnymede, 1215
Melvyn Bragg explores the events of 1215 and the dispute between King John and his barons which led to the issuing of one of the most important documents in English history. As England descended into what seemed an inevitable civil war, a group of rebellious noblemen forced the English king to the negotiating table. Melvyn visits Canterbury, seat of Archbishop Stephen Langton, one of the key figures in the peace negotiations, and comes face to face with the document sealed on the field at Runnymede on June 15th, 1215: Magna Carta.
With: David Carpenter, Professor of Medieval History at King's College London; Claire Breay, Curator of the British Library's Magna Carta exhibition; and Nicholas Vincent, Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
TUE 09:30 Just So Science (b04795tq)
Series 2
The Crab That Played with the Sea
In The Crab that Played with the Sea, Kipling tells the tale of arrogant and mischievous Pau Amma the mighty King Crab who eventually gets his comeuppance. For Palaeontologist Richard Fortey, it's the indestructible horseshoe crab that should be regarded as truly regal, with its copper-rich blue blood and incredible longevity, having remained almost stubbornly the same for nearly 500 million years. The reader is Samuel West. Producer: Rami Tzabar
TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b04wtwfq)
Different Every Time - Robert Wyatt
Episode 2
Wyatt perfects his drumming style, even practicing at the Mallorca home of poet Robert Graves.
Then he gets married and afterwards it's the emergence of The Soft Machine, playing psychedelic pop 'happenings' and 'freak outs' - often at an underground club called UFO.
Marcus O'Dair's biography of Robert Wyatt, a musical cult cum national treasure,
Read by Julian Rhind-Tutt.
Abridged in five parts by Katrin Williams:
Producer: Duncan Minshull
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2015.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04wtwfs)
Equal Pay. Haydn Gwynne. Leading Women in Medicine.
Will the Equal Pay (Transparency) Bill ever become law? Haydn Gwynne and the lack of women in theatre. Four female Presidents of Royal Medical Colleges. A forgotten woman of history: Rachel Parsons, co-founder of the Women's Engineering Society.
TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b04wtwfv)
The Corrections
How Not to Get Tenure
Jonathan Franzen's exuberant saga of a dysfunctional Midwestern family, starring Richard Schiff, Maggie Steed, Colin Stinton and Julian Rhind-Tutt.
Episode 2 - How not to get tenure: Failed academic and aspiring screenwriter, Chip Lambert, has made an early exit from the planned lunch with his parents, leaving his younger sister Denise to pick up the pieces. But where did Chip's life start to go so wrong?
Directed by Emma Harding
The Corrections is an acclaimed 2001 novel by American author Jonathan Franzen. It was awarded the National Book Award in 2001, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2002, and was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize. In 2005, The Corrections was included in TIME magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923.
Jonathan Franzen is the author of four novels (Freedom, The Corrections, Strong Motion, and The Twenty-Seventh City), two collections of essays (Farther Away, How to Be Alone), a personal history (The Discomfort Zone), and a translation of Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening. He lives in New York City and Santa Cruz, California
Marcy Kahan is a playwright and radio dramatist. Recent radio work includes two series of Lunch (starring Claire Skinner and Stephen Mangan) and Mr Bridger's Orphan. Theatre work includes 20 Cigarettes (Soho Theatre), the stage version of When Harry Met Sally (Theatre Royal Haymarket) and Goldberg Variations (Miranda Theatre, New York).
TUE 11:00 Shared Planet (b04wtzz3)
The Future of Corals
Coral reefs are renowned for their beauty and diversity, and they provide us with a wondrous spectacle. Full of colourful fish, patrolled by sharks and visited by a host of exotic creatures from manta rays to turtles, they bring breath-taking colour to our seas. But what is their future? As our climate warms, so too do the oceans and corals are highly sensitive to changes in temperature. The increasing level of CO2 in our atmosphere means more is dissolved in seawater, making our oceans ever more acidic and hindering their ability to build their structures. Mass coral bleaching, when large areas of corals die and turn white, was unknown before the 1980s, now they are increasingly common in many areas of the ocean. The lack of build-up of new coral due to acidification is now measurable and many scientists are wondering how long coral reefs will survive. Monty Dom explores the future of coral in our stressed oceans and explores what can be done.
TUE 11:30 Sasha's Song (b04wtzz5)
In a rapidly changing Russia, Sasha Tsaliuk continues to fight for the existence of his beloved Moscow Acapella Jewish Choir. Formed as the Soviet Union collapsed around him, Sasha came to the choir as conductor when it was a potent, exciting and hopeful symbol of the new Russia. Here was music both sacred and folk that had been arrested, buried and silence by Communism, anti-semitism and the hammer blow of war- it was the return of those voices long stifled.
Whilst many of Sasha's contemporaries left to begin new lives abroad Sasha stayed, believing the choir offered hope and progress for the best of modern Russian values. Tsaliuk had once performed in the legendary Big Soviet Children's Choir, beloved across all of the Soviet Union. Singing to the Party highups and travelling the length and breadth of the Union. Now Sasha lives to revive Jewish Russian music; the music of the vanished world of his grandparents. His choir has won international acclaim on its many tours and draws diverse audiences at home. Frequently it performs for the mega rich who find it charming and fashionable. But Sasha's perfect dinner jacket hides deep worries.
The choir perennially struggles for funding and the Russia he hoped would be home to the choir is perplexingly different and volatile. Every night, Sasha is up late on Skype scouring the world for sponsors. As the Moscow Jewish Acapella Choir marks its 25th anniversary Monica Whitlock hears its story and encounters Sasha's world.
Producer Mark Burman.
TUE 12:00 News Summary (b04wrq8b)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 Home Front (b04wtzz7)
6 January 1915 - Jack Wilson
A couple of visitors descend on the Wilsons, one more welcome than the other.
Written by: Katie Hims
Directed and produced by: Lucy Collingwood
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
TUE 12:15 You and Yours (b04wtzz9)
Call You and Yours: Online Dating
Now is the busiest time of year for dating websites as people who have resolved to find a partner sign up in droves.
On You & Yours today we are asking what is different about online dating? How do you get the most out of it? Has it worked for you? Was it expensive? What did you learn? And was it a good experience?
Maybe you feel online dating is the norm now and there is no shame in meeting people online. Or perhaps you had a bad time with it, and it wasn't worth your time and money.
Either way if you found love online, or are still looking for the one - please email your stories to youandyours@bbc.co.uk.
Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Natalie Donovan.
TUE 12:57 Weather (b04wrq8d)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 13:00 World at One (b04wtzzc)
Analysis of current affairs reports, presented by Martha Kearney.
TUE 13:45 Self Orbits CERN (b04wtzzf)
Bamboozled
Will Self continues his 50 kilometre circumnavigation of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN just outside Geneva - entirely on foot.
Following the course of the Collider through the French and Swiss countryside, Will stops at regular intervals to descend to the tunnel below and view the experiments.
Invited to 'feel the wonder' of particle physics, Will is so far baffled. Far from wondrous, he very soon finds himself wondering about his own capacity for misunderstanding - expressing concerns that his walking tour may be a complete waste of time.
And to make matters worse, just as he emerges from one of the tunnels Will is engulfed by a huge thunderstorm.
Producer: Laurence Grissell.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (b04wth5b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (b04wtzzh)
The Ferryhill Philosophers
A Good Thing for a Good Reason
A rather unlikely duo, they come from two very different worlds, albeit only seven miles apart - Joe Snowball, unemployed ex-miner in a village forgotten by the world, and the Hon. Hermione Pink, slightly disenchanted senior lecturer at the third oldest university in England, an ivory tower almost encircled by the River Wear.
Together, they wrestle with the collision between moral philosophy and the sundry dilemmas encountered by the not-always-good people of Ferryhill, deprived of jobs, opportunities and the kind of ethical guidance once offered by the Methodist Church and the National Union of Mineworkers.
Should a man bent on suicide be stopped - or allowed to do as he wishes? Should one always tell the truth even if it has bad consequences?
The philosophy is thought provoking, the unlikely partnership is intriguing, and the world of Ferryhill is a humorous, engaging and sometimes challenging place to visit.
Cast:
Joe................Alun Armstrong
Hermione......Deborah Findlay
Derek............Joe Caffrey
Gloria............Tracy Whitwell
Lucy...............Lauren Kellegher
Barry.............Jonathan Keeble
Written by Michael Chaplin
Directed by Marilyn Imrie
A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (b04wnkcx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
TUE 15:30 In Search Of The Holy Tail (b04m7bsn)
Broadcaster Marc Riley, rock musician Damon Albarn and film maker Ceri Levy venture outside their usual comfort zone and travel to Mull in search of Sea Eagles and Basking Sharks.
During their weekend on the island they do some bird watching, swim with seals and Damon composes a new piece of music which he performs to Marc and Ceri in Fingal's cave on the Isle of Staffa, using the unique echoes of the waves in the cave as accompaniment.
During their journey they discuss Gilbert and Sullivan, how to catch a Blue Tit in a snowy garden and the reintroduction of Sea Eagles to the Scottish Islands.
As a finale to the weekend, Marc and Damon overcome their fears and venture into the deep waters off Mull to swim with Basking Sharks, some of them over 20 feet in length.
Produced by John Leonard
A Smooth Operations production
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (b04wtzzk)
How Is English Going to Change in the future?
How's English going to change in the future? Michael Rosen looks ahead, with the help of linguists Bas Aarts and Laura Wright, and biologist Mark Pagel. It's not looking good for "shall" and "must"...
Producer Beth O'Dea.
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (b04wv045)
Series 35
Philippa Langley on Richard III
When Philippa Langley and other members of the Richard III Society helped to discover the body of the king in a Leicester car park, Richard's life once again became a hotly contested debating point. Philippa joins Matthew Parris to defend Richard III as a Great Life, with expert witness and Richard biographer Annette Carson. Can the man who may have been responsible for the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower really be described as "great"? Or was he the victim of Tudor propaganda and Shakespearian slander?
Producer Christine Hall
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2015.
TUE 17:00 PM (b04wv047)
PM at
5pm- Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04wrq8g)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 I've Never Seen Star Wars (b04wv049)
Series 6
Roy Walker
Marcus Brigstocke persuades Roy Walker to see his first ever Shakespeare play and banter with the audience for the first time.
Roy is best known as the host of ITVs Catchphrase.
Series persuading guests to try new experiences: things they really ought to have done by now. Some are loved, some are loathed, in this show all about embracing the new.
Director: Bill Dare
First broadcast on BBC Radio in January 2015.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (b04wv04c)
Emma's keen to chat with Alan and get her wedding booked in at St Stephens for mid-May. Ed seems reluctant, though. It's not that he doesn't want to get married. He's worried about money, but also admits that Will and Emma's wedding at St Stephens is on his mind. Emma looks forward to the new start though, with Keira excited about being a bridesmaid. Ed comes around and they agree to see Alan on Thursday.
Kenton has a surprise holiday in Australia planned for Jolene in February. He also wants to revamp the Bull - persuading Freda to retire will be a challenge. Fallon hints that Kenton should consider Emma for catering help at the Bull, as Fallon soon hopes to set up her Ambridge Tea Rooms. They joke about Bert, who's planning his own major poetry cycle (A Borsetshire Boy), inspired by A E Housman.
Johnny's feeling miserable after failing his Maths and English exams - and he's too proud to 'show himself up' by visiting the college's Learning Support team. More happily, Tony's more mobile and gets measured for crutches.
Sales are down at Organics and Helen wonders whether it's Tina's fault - and whether she should get back into the shop herself. Sensing that Tom has been interfering, Rob suggests that Helen speaks to him before looking elsewhere for advice.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (b04wv04f)
Richard Linklater on Boyhood, Garrick Ohlsson on Scriabin
John Wilson talks to Richard Linklater, who directed the film Boyhood over twelve years, so that his actors, including Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke, aged appropriately.
Pianist Garrick Ohlsson celebrates the music of Alexander Scriabin, the Russian composer who believed his music would change the world.
Nicholas Cullinan, today announced as the new director of the National Portrait Gallery.
And a poem for January, written specially for Front Row by Alison Brackenbury.
TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b04wtwfv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 The City on the Couch (b04wth5g)
Psychoanalyst Mary Bradbury investigates why a growing number of big businesses in the financial sector are taking more care of their employees' mental health.
Contributors include Graham Thornicroft, Professor of Community Psychiatry at King's College London; Professor David Tuckett of University College London; Ian Gatt QC of Herbert Smith Freehills; and Sacha Romanovitch of Grant Thornton.
Presented by Mary Bradbury
Produced by David Morley
A Bite Media production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (b04wv050)
Access to Work, Gary O'Donoghue
Liz Sayce is the author of the Sayce Review of Access to Work, the DWP funded scheme to help disabled people with employment.
The Select Committee has made several recommendations to improve the service and Liz explains some of these to Peter White.
The BBC's former political correspondent Gary O'Donoghue has just taken up his new post as the BBC's man in Washington and talks to Peter about his first week in the job.
TUE 21:00 Inside Health (b04wv052)
A&E in winter, Fruit juice, Opioid drugs and chronic pain, No evidence, Obesity
Should fruit juice be dropped from the 5 a day fruit and vegetable recommendations?
A&E in a mild winter - why has the NHS been stretched to near breaking point over the festive period?
Dr Mark Porter visits a busy pain clinic to find out why prescribed opioid painkillers for long term non-cancer pain often do more harm than good.
And resident sceptic and GP Dr Margaret McCartney outlines her New Year resolutions.
TUE 21:30 Magna Carta (b04wtwfn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 21:58 Weather (b04wrq8j)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b04wv054)
New figures reveal A and E waiting times in England at their worst for a decade
News prompts political row - nursing and health unions warn system is in "crisis".
TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04wwgzk)
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher
Sorry to Disturb, Part One
Harriet Walter reads the first part of Hilary Mantel's autobiographical tale. Isolated in a claustrophobic flat in Jeddah, life becomes increasingly off kilter when the doorbell rings.
Harriet Walter reads.
Abridged by Julian Wilkinson.
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.
TUE 23:00 Cabin Pressure (b04vf25d)
Series 5
Zurich, pt 1
One of the most popular radio sitcoms of the past ten years bows out with a special double episode. As Martin decides whether to take his new job, is this the end for MJN Air? And just what has Arthur painted on the side of the van?
With the show titles running alphabetically from the first ever episode - "Abu Dhabi" through to this double finale "Zurich" - the cast and crew of MJN Air discover that whether it's choosing an ice-cream flavour, putting a princess in a van or remembering your grandmother's name, no job is too small, but many, many jobs are too difficult.
With special guests including Anthony Head and Timothy West.
Written by John Finnemore
Produced and Directed by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (b04wv09g)
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.
WEDNESDAY 07 JANUARY 2015
WED 00:00 Midnight News (b04wrq9g)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b04wtwfq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04wrq9l)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04wrq9n)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04wrq9q)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (b04wrq9v)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04ww0p1)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Reverend Sharon Grenham-Toze.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (b04wwcnh)
Irish Beef Exports, Oxford Farming Conference Report, Soil Quality
Anna Hill hears why Ireland is the first EU country which is being permitted to sell its beef to the USA since the BSE outbreak of nearly 20 years ago.
British farmers are urged to increase efficiency and competitiveness by the Oxford Farming Conference's annual report.
And we hear from a farm in Dorset which recycles Christmas trees in a novel way - by feeding them to goats.
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Mark Smalley.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0nw9)
Blue Rock Thrush
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Liz Bonnin presents the blue rock thrush, perched high on a Spanish castle. The blue rock thrush has a slim silhouette, rather like that of a blackbird, but these largely sedentary, elusive and sun-loving birds are a rare sight in northern Europe. They are widespread in summer across southern Europe and also occur in the Arabian Peninsula and across most of south-east Asia. The male lives up to his name, as in sunlight his deep indigo body feathers contrast with his darker wings and tail. His mate is a more muted mid brown, and barred beneath. Blue rock thrushes often nest in old ruins, but can also be found in houses in villages and on the edge of towns. Here in sunny spots they feed on large insects like grasshoppers and will even take small reptiles in their long thrush-like bills.
Producer Andrew Dawes.
WED 06:00 Today (b04wwcnk)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Magna Carta (b04wwcnm)
The Aftermath of Runnymede
Melvyn Bragg looks at the consequences of the agreement thrashed out between King John and his barons at Runnymede in the summer of 1215. Magna Carta, a charter settling a dispute between the king and a group of rebels, was agreed on June 19th. Yet within a few weeks the agreement had failed, and both sides disavowed it. So how did a failed peace treaty turn into the best known legal document in the English-speaking world? Melvyn Bragg looks at the complex politics of thirteenth-century England and discovers how John's Great Charter was revived and reinvented over the course of the next hundred years.
With: Louise Wilkinson, Professor of Medieval History at Canterbury Christ Church University; Cressida Williams, Cathedral and City Archivist at Canterbury Cathedral; David Carpenter, Professor of Medieval History at King's College London; Nicholas Vincent, Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia; and Claire Breay, Curator of the British Library's Magna Carta exhibition.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
WED 09:30 Just So Science (b047bzlb)
Series 2
The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo
The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo. Jon Hutchinson and Maria Nilsson discuss how the Kangaroo got his hop and why Skippy is no longer considered Australian - at least, genetically. The Reader is Samuel West. Producer: Rami Tzabar
WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b04wwcnp)
Different Every Time - Robert Wyatt
Episode 3
In 1970, Wyatt splits with Soft Machine and goes on to play with Matching Mole. Three years later, at a party in London, comes the moment that will change his life forever...
Marcus O'Dair's biography of Robert Wyatt, a musical cult cum national treasure,
Read by Julian Rhind-Tutt.
Abridged in five parts by Katrin Williams:
Producer: Duncan Minshull
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2015.
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04wwcnr)
Dancer Michaela DePrince, Women's Magazines, New Screening Tests for Babies
Michaela DePrince was orphaned in Sierra Leone, adopted by American parents and is now a professional ballerina. Michaela talks about her life and how her dream to become a dancer came after a faded picture of a ballerina blew into her orphanage gates. After hearing an interview on Woman's Hour about the use of 'partial defence' in murder cases where adultery may have taken place, Hetti, a listener, contacted Woman's Hour about her friend, Joanna, who had been killed in 2010 by her estranged husband after a divorce battle. Hetti joins Jenni Murray to explain why she is calling for a Royal Commission on murder. We update on new screening tests given to babies, and look at women's magazines - with falling readerships who are increasingly turning to online, we get some magazine editors together to ask what is the future of women's magazines and what are they doing to survive?
WED 10:40 15 Minute Drama (b04wwcnt)
The Corrections
Chip Lands a New Job
Jonathan Franzen's exuberant saga of a dysfunctional Midwestern family, starring Richard Schiff (The West Wing), Maggie Steed, Colin Stinton and Julian Rhind-Tutt.
Episode 3 - Chip lands a new job: Failed academic and aspiring screenwriter, Chip Lambert, has made an early exit from the planned lunch with his parents. He is anxious to make some urgent corrections to the draft of his screenplay, before producer Eden Procuro reads it. But Eden has other plans for him.
Directed by Emma Harding
The Corrections is an acclaimed 2001 novel by American author Jonathan Franzen. It was awarded the National Book Award in 2001, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2002 and was included in TIME magazine's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923.
Jonathan Franzen is the author of four novels (Freedom, The Corrections, Strong Motion, and The Twenty-Seventh City), two collections of essays (Farther Away, How to Be Alone) and a personal history (The Discomfort Zone).
Marcy Kahan is a playwright and radio dramatist. Recent radio work includes two series of Lunch (starring Claire Skinner and Stephen Mangan) and Mr Bridger's Orphan. Theatre work includes 20 Cigarettes (Soho Theatre) and the stage version of When Harry Met Sally (Theatre Royal Haymarket).
WED 10:55 The Listening Project (b04wwcnw)
Alison and Shirley - Feeling a Failure
Fi Glover with a conversation between sisters about the impact of failing the 11-plus, compounded with being brought up by parents who believed that praise would spoil a child.
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 Beirut's House of Barakat (b04wwcny)
On the intersection of Damascus and Independence streets in the Lebanese capital Beirut, there's an elegant house, pockmarked by bullet holes, that goes by a number of names - the Barakat house, the yellow house, or Beit Beirut. This building has stood witness to the experiences of Beirut over the last century. It contains the stories of those who lived in it before the war and the snipers who occupied it during the war.
The house has been saved from demolition by the dogged efforts of an architect, Mona el-Hallak. In a city where old buildings are continuously knocked down to make way for new flats, Mona has championed this building and preserved it for future generations.
Rebecca Lloyd-Evans went to meet Mona in the house, and this programme is a document of her experience there. The plan for the museum is to encourage Beirutis to come together and share their histories of the city.
Mona hopes that this could show the way towards a permanent peace in Lebanon, but - as Rebecca finds out - people's stories diverge and conflict and finding unity is not an easy mission.
Produced by Isabel Sutton and Rebecca Lloyd-Evans
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 11:30 The Rivals (b04wwcp0)
Series 3
A Snapshot
Based on a short story by M. McDonnell Bodkin
Dramatised by Chris Harrald
Inspector Lestrade was made to look a fool in the Sherlock Holmes stories. Now he is writing his memoirs and has a chance to get his own back, with tales of Holmes' rivals. He continues with private detective and keen gardener Paul Beck as they question the apparently watertight evidence against Squire Clement Gore in a fatal shooting.
Directed by Liz Webb
Episode by Chris Harrald inspired by the short story 'A Snapshot' by M. McDonnell Bodkin.
WED 12:00 News Summary (b04wrq9z)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 Home Front (b04wwcp2)
7 January 1915 - Ivy Layton
At Folkestone's Pleasure Gardens Theatre, someone's in for a surprise.
Written by: Katie Hims
Directed and produced by: Lucy Collingwood
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
WED 12:15 You and Yours (b04wwcp4)
Mobile phone contracts, protecting whistleblowers, boiler insurance
Radio 4's consumer affairs programme.
WED 12:57 Weather (b04wrqb1)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 13:00 World at One (b04wwcp6)
Analysis of current affairs reports, presented by Martha Kearney.
WED 13:45 Self Orbits CERN (b04wwcp8)
The Ultimatum
Will Self continues his 50 kilometre circumnavigation of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN just outside Geneva - entirely on foot.
Following the course of the Collider through the French and Swiss countryside, Will stops at regular intervals to descend to the tunnel below and view the experiments.
Invited to 'feel the wonder' of particle physics, Will is still baffled. He decides to issue an ultimatum to his CERN hosts.
Producer: Laurence Grissell.
WED 14:00 The Archers (b04wv04c)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (b04xf78v)
The Ferryhill Philosophers
Wants and Desires
A rather unlikely duo, they come from two very different worlds, albeit only seven miles apart - Joe Snowball, unemployed ex-miner in a village forgotten by the world, and the Hon. Hermione Pink, slightly disenchanted senior lecturer at the third oldest university in England, an ivory tower almost encircled by the River Wear.
Together, they wrestle with the collision between moral philosophy and the sundry dilemmas encountered by the not-always-good people of Ferryhill, deprived of jobs, opportunities and the kind of ethical guidance once offered by the Methodist Church and the National Union of Mineworkers.
Should a jobless teenage girl be entitled to sell her body for sex? Should one always tell the truth even if it has bad consequences?
The philosophy is thought provoking, the unlikely partnership is intriguing, and the world of Ferryhill is a humorous, engaging and sometimes challenging place to visit.
Cast:
Joe.....................Alun Armstrong
Hermione...........Deborah Findlay
Vera...................Jackie Lye
Kerry..................Laura Elphinstone
Gaz....................Chris Grahamson
Rollo Ironside.....John Rowe
Written by Michael Chaplin
Directed by Marilyn Imrie
A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4
WED 15:00 Money Box Live (b04wwdyz)
Tax and Self-Assessment
Getting ready for Self-Assessment? If you've got a question about tax or your tax return call 03700 100 444 from
1pm to
3.30pm on Wednesday or e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk now.
Paul Lewis will be joined by:
Chas Roy-Chowdhury, Head of Taxation, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
Elaine Clark, Managing Director, Cheap Accounting.
Paula Tallon, Managing Partner, Gabelle Tax
Standard geographic charges apply. Calls from mobiles may be higher.
WED 15:30 Inside Health (b04wv052)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b04wwdz1)
War Games - Riding the Subway
The militarisation of every day life. Joanna Bourke, Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London, talks to Laurie about the multiple ways in which military violence and war play invade our current lives, pervading language and entertainment. Are we irrevocably 'wounding the world'?
Also, Richard Ocejo, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the City University of New York, takes us on a mystery ride with teenage New Yorkers, showing the diverse ways in which people experience being strangers in public space.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (b04wwdz4)
Prince Andrew coverage; postponing of royal doc; Peter Greste retrial; 10 years of FOI.
Two stories this week have raised questions about the relationship between the Royal family and the press. There's been extensive press coverage relating to allegations against Prince Andrew, with national newspapers running front page splashes and lengthy spreads, despite the allegations being unsubstantiated. Furthermore, there has also been controversy surrounding the postponement of a BBC documentary Reinventing the Royals. Andrea Catherwood speaks to the BBC's Royal Correspondent Peter Hunt about the events surrounding Andrew's story. She also hears from Roy Greenslade, Guardian columnist and professor of journalism at City University, about the press coverage, and from Ingrid Seward, royal biographer and editor of Majesty magazine, about how Buckingham palace have reacted.
Three Al-Jazeera English journalists, Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, are to be retried but remain in jail, a year on from their original detention. The three were found guilty of spreading false news and supporting the now banned Muslim Brotherhood. So what can we expect from a retrial? Andrea speaks to Sue Turton, presenter and correspondent for Al Jazeera English.
It is ten years since the Freedom of Information Act came into being - forcing official bodies to answer questions from the press and the public. More than 400,000 requests have been made, leading to exposes of MPs expenses to A&E ambulance delays. To discuss its impact Andrea is joined by Maurice Frankel, director of campaign for freedom of information; Heather Brooke, professor of journalism at City University and FOI campaigner, and journalist and author Simon Jenkins who is sceptical of total disclosure.
Producer: Katy Takatsuki.
WED 17:00 PM (b04wwdzf)
PM at
5pm- Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04wrqb6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 What Does the K Stand For? (b04wwgz3)
Series 2
All the Fun of the Affair
Stephen K Amos' sitcom about his own teenage years, growing up black, gay and funny in 1980s South London.
Written by Jonathan Harvey with Stephen K Amos.
Produced by Colin Anderson.
WED 19:00 The Archers (b04wwgz5)
Kenton's dismayed Jolene's lost her 'mojo'. She'd feel better if only he'd clean the condenser. Back soon, he promises, before rushing off, leaving Jolene confounded once more. He returns with a surprise - two tickets to Australia. With Fallon lined up to cover their work, Kenton's got it all boxed off. Jolene declares Kenton a genius.
With an architect snooping around Brookfield Jill's made herself scarce. She goes to discuss room arrangements with Shula, telling her she'd rather have the box room than push Dan out of his own bedroom. Shula assures her Dan's absolutely fine; Jill must have the bigger room. And they'll make space for Phil's piano. But Jill's adamant she can't keep the piano just for sentimental reasons. It's time to let it go. Jill's surprised Jennifer hasn't invited Carol to her birthday celebration. Shula suggests that perhaps it's family only.
Helen tackles Tina about the problems at Organics. Tina challenges Helen's assumptions, absolving herself of any blame. Helen admits that whilst some of the fault lies with herself, Tina should have checked things more thoroughly. In future she should feel free to ring Helen for advice, any time. The conversation leads Helen to think she might need become a little more involved now and again.
WED 19:15 Front Row (b04wwgz7)
Steve Carell, Ian McMillan on Elvis's 80th, Chris Watson, The Fever
Steve Carell talks to Samira Ahmed about his new movie Foxcatcher, based on the true story of a millionaire's sinister fixation with an Olympic wrestling champion; Ian McMillan reads a poem he's written to mark what would have been Elvis's 80th birthday tomorrow; sound recordist Chris Watson celebrates nature in January; and Tobias Menzies and Robert Icke on new play The Fever
Produced by Jerome Weatherald.
WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b04wwcnt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:40 today]
WED 20:00 Unreliable Evidence (b04wwgz9)
The Law and Artificial Intelligence
Clive Anderson ask how our legal system will cope in a fast-approaching world of autonomous cars, care-bots and other machines using artificial intelligence to make judgments normally made by humans.
What will be the legal implications of the use of robotics in healthcare - the introduction of care-bots that not only monitor patients' medical care, but carry meals, crack jokes and remind patients to take medication? Who will be sued for negligence if the care-bot malfunctions - the NHS, the doctor who delegated responsibility to the machine, the manufacturer of the machine or the software company?
The Government is currently changing laws to allow the testing of prototype autonomous self-driving vehicles on UK roads - how will these changes affect motorists? Who will be liable in the event of an accident? What happens if a car is hacked and taken over by a criminal third party? Who has access to data about the car's, and therefore the passenger's, movements?
The development in Japan of therapeutic robots looking like baby seals has raised questions about whether robots should be given human or animal form. What are the legal implications of having to separate a sick child from the malfunctioning robot with which he or she has bonded?
Can a super intelligent robot be legally accountable for the decisions it takes? Who has the intellectual property rights for the creative output of a robot? And can existing laws deal with all these issues or do we need major new legislation to deal with the robotic future?
Produced by Brian King
An Above The Title production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 20:45 David Baddiel Tries to Understand (b04wwgzc)
Series 1
Electricity
In a new series, David Baddiel sets out to make sense of some apparently puzzling topics.
In this first programme, and after hearing suggestions from his followers on social media, David seeks to understand electricity. He travels to Manchester to learn the basics from a professor of high voltage technology, and to Staffordshire to grasp the operations of a huge power station.
Producer: Giles Edwards.
WED 21:00 How to Dismantle a Nuclear Power Station (b04wwgzf)
This year, the UK's final Magnox nuclear power reactor will cease operations. It's the end of an era for this British technology. It powered the world's first industrial-scale nuclear power station at Calder Hall in Cumbria in 1956, but more efficient alternatives have left it behind.
Just as Britain once excelled in nuclear innovation, now the country's top engineers and scientists are devising fresh approaches to dealing with our radioactive legacy. In this programme, Radio 4 looks at what it takes to dismantle a nuclear power station.
WED 21:30 Magna Carta (b04wwcnm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b04wwgzh)
Gunmen burst into offices of French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, in Paris
Twelve people were killed and four others were critically wounded.
WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04wwqcw)
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher
Sorry to Disturb, Part Two
Harriet Walter reads the second part of Hilary Mantel's autobiographical tale. Set in a claustrophobic flat in Jeddah, feelings of unease and cultural disconnect come to a head.
Harriet Walter reads.
Abridged by Julian Wilkinson.
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.
WED 23:00 Roger McGough's Other Half (b04wwgzm)
Episode 1
Roger McGough is joined by Helen Atkinson-Wood, Philip Jackson and Richie Webb in a hilarious and surreal new sketch show for BBC Radio 4. With sketches about Fandom, Fatherhood and 17th Century France, you'll hear his familiar voice in a whole new light. Expect merriment and melancholy in equal measures, and a whisker of witty wordplay too. Produced by Victoria Lloyd.
WED 23:15 Love in Recovery (b04wwh8j)
Series 1
Fiona
The lives of five very different recovering alcoholics.
Set entirely at their weekly meetings, we hear them get to know each other, learn to hate each other, argue, moan, laugh, fall apart, fall in love and, most importantly, tell their stories.
Comedy drama by Pete Jackson, set in Alcoholics Anonymous. Starring Sue Johnston, John Hannah, Eddie Marsan, Rebecca Front, Paul Kaye and Julia Deakin.
In the first programme, Fiona, a competitive and snobby ex-banker, tries to come to terms with the fact that she might have more in common with the rest of the group than she'd like to admit.
Marion ...... Julia Deakin
Fiona ...... Rebecca Front
Simon ...... John Hannah
Julie ...... Sue Johnston
Danno ...... Paul Kaye
Andy ...... Eddie Marsan
There are funny stories, sad stories, stories of small victories and milestones, stories of loss, stories of hope, and stories that you really shouldn't laugh at - but still do. Along with the storyteller.
Writer Pete Jackson is a recovering alcoholic and has spent time with Alcoholics Anonymous. It was there he found, as many people do, support from the unlikeliest group of disparate souls, all banded together due to one common bond. As well as offering the support he needed throughout a difficult time, AA also offered a weekly, sometimes daily, dose of hilarity, upset, heartbreak and friendship.
Director: Ben Worsfield
A Lucky Giant production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2014. .
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (b04wwh8m)
Sean Curran reports from Westminster.
THURSDAY 08 JANUARY 2015
THU 00:00 Midnight News (b04wrqc3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b04wwcnp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04wrqc5)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04wrqc7)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04wrqc9)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (b04wrqcc)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04wwkgw)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Reverend Sharon Grenham-Toze.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (b04wwkh0)
Oxford Farming Conference
Farming Today comes from the Oxford Farming Conference, where subjects under debate include the sustainability of intensive farming, and the future for farmers if the UK were to leave the European Union. Anna Hill hears from the Secretary of State for the Environment, Elizabeth Truss, along with her Labour shadow Huw Irranca-Davies, the Scottish minister for Rural Affairs Richard Lochhead, and UKIP's agriculture spokesman Stuart Agnew.
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Emma Campbell.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0p28)
Brown Skua
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Liz Bonnin presents brown skua hunting over an Antarctic landscape. These bulky brown birds with their hooked death dealing bills are often cast as villains alongside the apparently helpless and lovable penguins. But skuas are highly efficient predators, their skills honed to find the maximum food they can in a largely barren landscape. They're resourceful pirates, forcing other birds to drop or disgorge their catches. They also scavenge around fishing boats or loiter at seal colonies where carcases are easy meat. But a penguin rookery which may have hundreds of pairs of birds provides a real bounty, where waiting for an opportunity, the keen-eyed skua swoops to seize its next victim which if it is small enough, will even swallow it whole.
THU 06:00 Today (b04wwkh4)
News and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather, Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 Magna Carta (b04wwkh8)
The Legacy of Magna Carta
Melvyn Bragg looks at the rich legacy of Magna Carta, examining the ways in which it has influenced ideas of liberty, human rights and even political systems. King John's Great Charter, formally agreed in a field at Runnymede in 1215, became a cause celebre during the English Civil War and later exerted a crucial influence on American constitutional thought. 800 years after it was sealed, Magna Carta remains a document of global importance.
With:
Nicholas Vincent, Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia; Daniel Hannan, writer and MEP for South East England; Justin Champion, Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway, University of London; and Kathleen Burk, Professor Emerita of Modern and Contemporary History at UCL.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
THU 09:30 Just So Science (b047c776)
Series 2
The Elephant's Child
In Kipling's tale, the elephant got his trunk from a crocodile on the banks of the great grey-green greasy Limpopo river. But does science understand how the trunk really evolved? Vivienne talks to researchers Kathleen Smith and her husband William Kier about the wonders of muscular hydrostats (trunks, tongues and tentacles to you and me) whilst vet Jon Hutchinson ponders the elephant's aquatic origins. Last of the series. The reader is Samuel West. Producer: Rami Tzabar
THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b04wwkhb)
Different Every Time - Robert Wyatt
Episode 4
Wyatt records the sublime song Shipbuilding, with Elvis Costello and Clive Langer. After that, some great records follow, penned and arranged at his home in Louth, Lincolnshire.
Marcus O'Dair's biography of Robert Wyatt, a musical cult cum national treasure,
Read by Julian Rhind-Tutt.
Abridged in five parts by Katrin Williams:
Producer: Duncan Minshull
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2015.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04wwkhd)
Should Oldham Sign Ched Evans?
What kind of message does the decision by League One football Club Oldham Athletic to potentially sign convicted rapist Ched Evans send out. He's believed to have agreed personal terms and the Club's owner says there is an "80% chance" that they will sign him over the next few days.
Over the past couple of months we have been running a series on domestic violence and the funding crisis faced by refuges all across the country. The government recently injected £10 million into the national network of refuges and just before Christmas psychological and emotional abuse was made a criminal offence. But with rising cases of domestic violence is more legislation and a one off large sum enough to maintain such a vital service in the long term?
The Tate Galleries in London, Liverpool and St Ives have unveiled an unprecedented line up of Women artists for 2015, including a Marlene Dumas exhibition; the first ever UK Sonia Delaunay retrospective; the first Barbara Hepworth exhibition in almost 50 years and the displaying of Tracey Emin’s famous ‘My bed’. Head of International Collections Frances Morris describes some of the highlights.
Globally fewer people are dying of HIV-Aids than in previous years, apart from one group teenagers, where the mortality rate from infection is still rising. The charity Chiva aims to help young people who are HIV+, offering a residential camps where they can meet each other and share experiences . Our reporter Angela Robson meets some of the young people at the Freedom to Be Camp.
THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b04wwkhj)
The Corrections
The Battle for Christmas
Jonathan Franzen's darkly comic novel about a dysfunctional Midwestern family, dramatised by Marcy Kahan. Starring Richard Schiff (The West Wing), Maggie Steed, Colin Stinton and Julian Rhind-Tutt.
Episode 4 - The Battle for Christmas. Enid and Alfred Lambert, two Midwesterners in their seventies, are about to embark on a long-awaited cruise to Eastern Canada. But Enid won't be truly content until all three of her children promise to come for one last Christmas in St Jude.
Directed by Emma Harding
The Corrections is an acclaimed 2001 novel by American author Jonathan Franzen. It was awarded the National Book Award in 2001, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2002 and was included in TIME magazine's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923.
Jonathan Franzen is the author of four novels (Freedom, The Corrections, Strong Motion, and The Twenty-Seventh City), two collections of essays (Farther Away, How to Be Alone) and a personal history (The Discomfort Zone).
Marcy Kahan is a playwright and radio dramatist. Recent radio work includes two series of Lunch for BBC Radio 4 (starring Claire Skinner and Stephen Mangan) and Mr Bridger's Orphan. Theatre work includes 20 Cigarettes (Soho Theatre) and the stage version of When Harry Met Sally (Theatre Royal Haymarket).
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b04wwkhl)
Should Comics Be Crimes?
In Japan, manga and anime are huge cultural industries. These comics and cartoons are read and watched by young and old, men and women, geeks and office workers. Their fans stretch around the world and their cultural appeal has been used by the government to market 'Cool Japan'.
Manga and anime can be about almost anything, and some can be confronting - especially those featuring young children in sexually explicit scenarios. The UK, Canada and Australia have all banned these sorts of virtual images, placing them in the same legal category as real images of child abuse.
Last year, Japan became the last OECD country to outlaw the possession of real child abuse images, but they decided not to ban manga and anime. To many outsiders and some Japanese, this seems baffling - another example of 'weird Japan', and a sign the country still has a long way to go to taking child protection seriously.
James Fletcher travels to Tokyo to find out why the Japanese decided not to ban. Is this manga just fodder for paedophiles, and is Japan dragging its feet on protecting children? Or is Japan resisting moral panic and standing up for freedom of thought and expression?
THU 11:30 Jim Allen: A Man of His Words (b04wwkhq)
In 1978, Christopher Eccleston was inspired to work in television after watching the BBC Play For Today, The Spongers. A shattering piece of drama about the impact of welfare cuts, its devastating ending shocked the viewing public.
In this programme, Christopher returns to Manchester to discover more about Jim Allen, the playwright behind The Spongers - a man who "wrote beautifully about real people's lives". His many works include Days of Hope, United Kingdom, Raining Stones, Land & Freedom, and the controversial theatre piece, Perdition.
With contributions from Ken Loach and Jimmy McGovern, we hear about the life of the former docker, miner and labourer, a lifelong passionate Socialist with an acute ear for the rhythms of working class speech.
Producer: Elizabeth Foster.
THU 12:00 News Summary (b04wwkzj)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 Home Front (b04wwkwr)
8 January 1915 - Alice Macknade
The Folkestone community mourns the loss of one of its missing.
Written by: Katie Hims
Directed and produced by: Lucy Collingwood
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
THU 12:15 You and Yours (b04wwkwt)
Tesco, Housing in 2015, Self-Employed Working Hours
We look at Tesco revival plans - how will they affect shoppers and the shopping market as a whole.
Experts muse on what the housing market will bring in 2015.
Why the Working Time Directive makes little difference to the self-employed?
Why the Credability card could open doors for those with a disability.
PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: PETE WILSON.
THU 13:00 World at One (b04wwkzl)
Analysis of current affairs reports, presented by Martha Kearney.
THU 13:45 Self Orbits CERN (b04wwmc7)
Finally Feeling the Wonder
Will Self continues his 50 kilometre circumnavigation of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN just outside Geneva - entirely on foot.
Following the course of the Collider through the French and Swiss countryside, Will stops at regular intervals to descend to the tunnel below and view the experiments.
So far Will has been feeling completely baffled. Following an ultimatum to his CERN hosts, he receives a crash course in particle physics from Professor Akram Khan of Brunel University.
Producer: Laurence Grissell.
THU 14:00 The Archers (b04wwgz5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (b04wwmc9)
The Last of the Pearl Fishers
By Hannah Khalil.
Played by Pippa Nixon, Lillian becomes obsessed with her Filipino maid Celeste's disappearance. As she searches Dubai for Celeste she realises how little she knows about her and begins to question her own credentials as an employer. A modern-day exploration of slavery.
Pippa Nixon recently was heard as the regular character Celestine de Tulio in Tommies, Radio 4's major First World War drama series.
THU 15:00 Open Country (b04wwmcc)
Wiltshire Wellbeing Group
Helen Mark meets the people who have found the courage to embrace outdoor life.
The Wiltshire Wildlife Trust has been running the Well Being Programme since 2008, in partnership with Wiltshire Council Public Health, providing support for people suffering from mental and emotional stress. The programme is available to anyone experiencing issues such as persistent low mood, depression, anxiety or long-term mental health conditions - this includes people who may be experiencing mental health issues on top of physical or mental disability too.
Joining them at one of their regular weekly sessions, Helen meets those whose lives have quite literally been transformed by this project - and by embracing the landscape on their doorstep have also found their way back to a happier life.
Produced by Nicola Humphries.
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b04wrwm4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Bookclub (b04ws1xm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b04wwn6n)
James Corden and Emily Blunt, Bennett Miller on Foxcatcher, Richard Linklater on Eric Rohmer
With Francine Stock.
Into The Woods stars James Corden and Emily Blunt discusses what it was like to sing on screen for the first time.
Director Bennett Miller reveals the reasons he cast Steve Carrell against type as a multi-millionaire who sponsored an American Olympic wrestling team with tragic consequences.
As a retrospective of Eric Rohmer's career continues at the BFI Southbank, Boyhood director Richard Linklater and critic Antonia Quirke consider the quiet genius of films like The Green Ray and Claire's Knee.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b04wwn6q)
Venus mission, Science highlights for 2015, Sonotweezers, Tsunami 10 years on
Adam Rutherford investigates the news in science and science in the news.
This week's announcement of the discovery of 8 planets lying within the habitable zones of their stars has again raised the prospect of an earth like planet existing outside our solar system, But if we're to understand how "earth like" these exoplanets really are, we need to gain vital clues from earth's "evil twin" Venus argues environmental engineer Richard Ghail. Adam Rutherford hears about his proposed new mission to Venus - a planet orbiter to examine the surface and atmosphere that will allow us to understand why Venus has evolved so differently from earth despite their apparent sisterlike characteristics
In the more immediate future science correspondent Jonathan Amos looks ahead to some of the highlights in astronomy and physics we can expect in 2015 - from the switch on of the newly energised Large Hadron Collider, and the imminent results of the successful Rosetta mission to the comet 67P, to the long awaited flyby this summer to capture images of Pluto.
Roland Pease reports on a revolutionary method of controlling microscopic objects using sonics. As we move further into nanoscale technologies - electronic, mechanical and biological, and often a combination of all three - this could potentially offer a solution to manipulating structures, many of which are quite fragile at this scale.
And ten years on from the shock of the South East Asian Tsunami that was to cost the lives of over 220 000 people Adam Rutherford speaks to Dave Tappin of the British Geological Survey, one of the first marine geologists who went to assess the cause of this seismic event. What have we learned in the intervening years?
Producer Adrian Washbourne.
THU 17:00 PM (b04wwn6s)
PM at
5pm- Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04wrqch)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Bridget Christie Minds the Gap (b04wwnh8)
Series 2
Episode 1
Bridget is back asking who has the best sexism in the world, deconstructing a yoghurt advert and taking a look at what happens when a perfectly normal woman appears on TV.
With token man, Fred MacAulay who reveals a hitherto unsuspected penchant for certain kitchen cleaning products.
As she hasn't managed to single-handedly eradicate sexism, Bridget Christie returns in her multi-award winning series about modern feminism.
Bridget thought that she'd be able to put her feet up assuming her last series would bomb. Sadly it was a huge success and she's had to bang on about feminism ever since.
Written by Bridget Christie.
Producers: Alison Vernon-Smith and Alexandra Smith
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2015.
THU 19:00 The Archers (b04wwnhb)
Over lunch Kate gives Phoebe a lesson in living in the moment. Phoebe's more interested in getting back to college on time. Kate laments her position in the family. Her mother has always favoured the other children over her. Unthinking, she declares Phoebe's lucky not to be living in anyone else's shadow. When Phoebe reacts, Kate sees her mistake. Phoebe's missing Abbie and her old family life. Kate sympathizes, blaming Roy and labelling him a weak man. Phoebe instantly goes back into her shell. She decides her mother's drunk way too much, and orders her a taxi. Confiscating the car keys, she tells furious Kate she can have them back later.
Pip's keen for her parents to see the robotic milking system at the farm she's researched. Ruth's very positive, and David has no choice but to be impressed despite his reservations. Fran, the farmer, assures them that yields are up and time is saved. When they get home and pick up their messages they're greeted by an astronomical quote for slurry storage and handling at the new farm. David says it'll have to come off the purchase price. Ruth agrees, but she hopes it isn't a deal breaker.
THU 19:15 Front Row (b04wwnhd)
Michael Pennington, The Last of the Unjust, Minimalist Music
Michael Pennington, best known as a stage actor and co-founder of the English Shakespeare Company, discusses his new book Let Me Play the Lion Too: How to be an Actor.
As part of the research for his 1985 landmark documentary about the Holocaust, Shoah, director Claude Lanzmann interviewed Benjamin Murmelstein, the president of the Jewish Council who ran the "model ghetto" of Theresienstadt under the Nazis. Lanzmann has turned the previously unseen footage into The Last of the Unjust, a new documentary about Murmelstein and the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Anne Karpf reviews.
Minimalism was a musical movement born in the Sixties which was an ear-catching, pulsing reaction to the atonality of previous decades, associated with Philip Glass and Britain's Michael Nyman. The composers Stephen Montague and Scanner are taking part in a series of events: Minimalism Unwrapped. They explain the movement's key features.
In the fourth of Front Row's reflections on January, the Royal Academy's Director of Artistic Programmes Tim Marlow discusses a painting that encapsulates this dark time of year.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Olivia Skinner.
THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b04wwkhj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 The Report (b04wwqcp)
Islamic State
Former jihadi Aimen Dean gives a unique insight into the workings of Islamic State. Dean left school in Saudi Arabia to fight jihad in Bosnia in the 1990s. But with the rise of al Qaeda he became disillusioned with his comrades' drift towards terrorism. He joined al Qaeda - but working undercover for the British government. Dean has recently spoken publicly against the jihadist movement but he retains a deep network of contacts within it. Despite Dean's defection, IS supporters still debate with him. Through those discussions, Dean has gained a profound understanding of the ideology and organisational networks behind IS.
Reporter: Peter Marshall
Editor: Innes Bowen.
THU 20:30 In Business (b04wwqcr)
Meet the Vloggers
Vlogging may be the internet's new path to riches. Peter Day meets the Youtubers who start off making videos in their bedroom and end up being courted by big brands. Will these new relationships disrupt the advertising and broadcasting industries and, for those who make the big time, can their authentic appeal be maintained in the face of fame and money?
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b04wwn6q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 Magna Carta (b04wwkh8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b04wwqct)
Huge manhunt continuing north of Paris for 2 prime suspects in the massacre at Charlie Hebdo magazine.
The search is concentrated on woodland around the village of Longpont.
THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04wwwck)
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher
Comma
Comma is a sinister tale of childhood transgression, where the narrator Kitty is led astray by Mary, child of an ostracised local family. Mary is obsessed with what she has seen in the garden of a local family. The two little girls go on an illicit quest to find out more.
Reader: Rebekah Staton
Abridger: Jules Wilkinson
Producer: Simon Richardson.
THU 23:00 Colin Hoult's Carnival of Monsters (b04wwqcy)
Series 2
Episode 1
Enter the Carnival of Monsters, a bizarre and hilarious world of sketches, stories and characters, presented by the sinister Ringmaster.
Master character comedian Colin Hoult returns with the second series of his sinister sketch show.
A host of characters are the exhibits at the Carnival - all played by Colin himself.
Meet such monstrous yet strangely familiar oddities as: Wannabe Hollywood screenwriter Andy Parker; Anna Mann - outrageous star of such forgotten silver screen hits such as 'Rogue Baker', 'Who's For Turkish Delight' and 'A Bowl For My Bottom'; plus characters ranging from acid jazz obsessives, to mask workshop coordinators.
Writers Guild Award-winner Colin Hoult is best known for his highly acclaimed starring roles in Paul Whitehouse's 'Nurse', 'Being Human', Rickey Gervais' 'Life's Too Short' and 'Derek', and 'Russell Howard's Good News', as well as his many hit shows at the Edinburgh Festival. He has also appeared and written for a number of Radio 4 series including 'The Headset Set' and 'Colin and Fergus' Digi-Radio'.
Producer: Sam Bryant.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2015.
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (b04wwqd0)
The Business Secretary, Vince Cable, says there could be an inquiry into the collapse of the parcel delivery firm, City Link.
The move follows calls from Labour after the company folded on Christmas Eve, with the loss of well over two thousand jobs.
MPs debate the funding of higher education and UK relations with Spain in the on-going dispute over Gibraltar.
The House of Lords looks at what action is needed to tackle the problem of deprivation and increase social mobility.
Susan Hulme and team report on today's events in Parliament.
FRIDAY 09 JANUARY 2015
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b04wrqdf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b04wwkhb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04wrqdh)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04wrqdk)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04wrqdm)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b04wrqdp)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04xfc17)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Reverend Sharon Grenham-Toze.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b04xfc19)
Oxford Farming Conference: Day 2
Day Two of the Oxford Farming Conference, and debate centres on the tension between environmentalism and farming. Anna Hill talks to environmental campaigner George Monbiot, who describes the current system of farm subsidy as "an obscenity", and gets reactions from farmers at the conference to his views. She also meets one of the forty scholars - young people who are sponsored to come to the conference, and asks her views about the future of farming for the next generation.
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Emma Campbell.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0p9q)
Montserrat Oriole
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Liz Bonnin presents Montserrat oriole from the Caribbean island of Montserrat. In 1995, after being dormant for over 300 years, a volcano on erupted. The eruption not only destroyed Montserrat's capital but much of the wildlife couldn't escape, and one bird, the Montserrat oriole was almost silenced forever. The male is a colourful bird with coal-black head, wings and tail and underparts the colour of egg-yolk. It is one of the most endangered birds in the world, a bird caught between a rock and a hard place. Its forest home had already been reduced by cultivation and introduced predators. It was reduced to living in fragmented pockets of forest, two thirds of which were destroyed in the 1995 and later eruptions. This threatened to wipe out an already endangered bird. So, conservationists from Jersey Zoo moved 8 orioles into captivity to avoid natural extinction and now a captive breeding programme is successfully underway, such as this oriole specially recorded for Tweet of the Day at Chester Zoo.
FRI 06:00 Today (b04xfc1c)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b04wrwmd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b04wwtsj)
Different Every Time - Robert Wyatt
Episode 5
Wyatt curates a very successful Meltdown Festival in London. Plus an insight into 'le trac' – his particular form of stage fright - and meet some of his famous collaborators who continue to hold him in high esteem.
Marcus O'Dair's biography of Robert Wyatt, a musical cult cum national treasure,
Concluded by Julian Rhind-Tutt.
Abridged in five parts by Katrin Williams:
Producer: Duncan Minshull
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2015.
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04xfc1f)
Goal of the Year, Cost of Childcare, Remarrying
Jenni Murray will be talking to the woman whose footwork has landed her a place on the Fifa goal of the year shortlist against footballing superstars, James Rodriguez and Robin Van Persie. Republic of Ireland player Stephanie Roche's wonder goal was witnessed live by less than a hundred people - though six million have now seen it online. Is women's football finally earning its rightful place?
New research by the charity 4Children has found that one in five parents will cut hours or consider giving up work altogether this year because of the cost of childcare. Jenni talks to 4Children CEO Anne Longfield, who's also been appointed the next Children's Commissioner, about the problem.
As British actress Tallulah Riley and the billionaire founder of paypal, Elon Musk announce they're about to divorce for the second time, having split up and got back together once before, Jenni will be asking why they remarried in the first place? Is remarrying the same person always a recipe for disaster? If you're somebody who's re-found love with your ex, whatever the outcome, we'd love to hear your story.
The news this week that the average age of the first time buyer has risen yet again - this time to the age of thirty - won't surprise anybody. But it got us wondering, where are all those twenty-somethings living in the meantime? And if your adult children move back in to save, as record numbers have done, is it okay to charge them rent? Hear the debate on Womans Hour.
FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b04wwtsl)
The Corrections
Alfred's Patent
Jonathan Franzen's darkly comic novel about a dysfunctional Midwestern family, dramatised by Marcy Kahan. Starring Richard Schiff (The West Wing), Maggie Steed, Colin Stinton and Julian Rhind-Tutt.
Episode 5 - Alfred's Patent. Gary Lambert has spent his entire life trying to be the kind of son his parents would want him to be. But this only seems to leave him at odds with everyone.
Directed by Emma Harding
The Corrections is an acclaimed 2001 novel by American author Jonathan Franzen. It was awarded the National Book Award in 2001, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2002 and was included in TIME magazine's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923.
Jonathan Franzen is the author of four novels (Freedom, The Corrections, Strong Motion, and The Twenty-Seventh City), two collections of essays (Farther Away, How to Be Alone) and a personal history (The Discomfort Zone).
Marcy Kahan is a playwright and radio dramatist. Recent radio work includes two series of Lunch for BBC Radio 4 (starring Claire Skinner and Stephen Mangan) and Mr Bridger's Orphan. Theatre work includes 20 Cigarettes (Soho Theatre) and the stage version of When Harry Met Sally (Theatre Royal Haymarket).
FRI 11:00 Hip in a Hijab (b04wwtsn)
Meet the Mipsterz - or Muslim Hipsters - just one example of the growing number of articulate, style-conscious, politically-savvy, headscarf-wearing young women who are confronting cultural stereotypes at the same time as they negotiate the sometimes difficult divide between their own, their families' and society's expectations.
The most recent census figures show that one in twenty children under five in England and Wales is a girl raised a Muslim - but who are they and how do they envisage their futures? The popular press and the mass media might leave the impression that Muslim girls are either all shy, submissive wallflowers or aspiring terrorists. And yet statistics show that young Muslim women growing up in the UK are among the most academically high-achieving of their peer group. Add to this the boom in social media and Instagram - which has offered them both the chance for self-expression and a window into a world of like-minded young Muslim women domestically and abroad - and what you've got is the very modern phenomenon of a new tribe of highly-educated, fiercely ambitious, pop-culture loving young women intent on claiming what they consider their birthright.
But as more and more gifted, young Muslim women assert their identities, what also needs to be acknowledged is that, within Islamic communities, there is a potential culture-clash waiting to happen. Will the backlash against secularism in many communities, the pressures of tradition and culture mean that, despite the glowing grades and the hijabi-swagger, the Mipsterz and their sisters may not achieve their dreams?
The writer Shelina Janmohamed investigates.
Produced by Anna McNamee
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 11:30 Mark Steel's in Town (b03pjfbj)
Series 5
Derry/Londonderry
Mark Steel returns to Radio 4 for a fifth series of the award winning show that travels around the country, researching the history, heritage and culture of six towns that have nothing in common but their uniqueness, and does a bespoke evening of comedy in each one.
As every high street slowly morphs into a replica of the next, Mark Steel's in Town celebrates the parochial, the local and the unusual. From Corby's rivalry with Kettering to the word you can't say in Portland, the show has taken in the idiosyncrasies of towns up and down the country, from Kirkwall to Penzance, from Holyhead to Bungay.
This edition comes from Derry/Londonderry in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, where the problems start with deciding which name to actually use. Mark also looks at the somewhat contentious history of the city, the impact of being the 2013 City of Culture, the local dialect, and the new bridge that's got everyone talking in this jam-packed half-hour show. (It would have been quicker, but he used the local trains.) From January 2014.
Written and performed by ... Mark Steel
Additional material by ... Pete Sinclair
Production co-ordinator ... Trudi Stevens
Producer ... Ed Morrish.
FRI 12:00 News Summary (b04wrqdr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Home Front (b04wwtsq)
9 January 1915 - Kitty Lumley
In the final episode of Season 2, the Graham household is a hive of activity as they await a special delivery.
Written by: Katie Hims
Directed and produced by: Lucy Collingwood
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
FRI 12:15 You and Yours (b04xf1cx)
Cross-Channel Ferries, Solar Farms
Peter White with the latest on the battle over who operates cross-channel ferry services.
The cuts to subsidies for solar farms. And why it's getting harder and harder to get a mortgage on some former council flats.
FRI 12:57 Weather (b04wrqdt)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 13:00 World at One (b04wwwc2)
Analysis of current affairs reports, presented by Mark Mardell.
FRI 13:45 Self Orbits CERN (b04wwtst)
What Goes Around...
Will Self concludes his 50 kilometre circumnavigation of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN just outside Geneva - entirely on foot.
Following the course of the Collider through the French and Swiss countryside, Will stops at regular intervals to descend to the tunnel below and view the experiments.
As Will gets close to completing his circuit, he visits Voltaire's chateau and an abandoned CERN experiment. The excursions put Will in a pensive frame of mind as he heads towards Geneva Airport.
Producer: Laurence Grissell.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (b04wwnhb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (b01jhb3d)
Operation Black Buck
During the Falklands War 30 years ago, the RAF staged the world's longest bombing run, in an attempt to damage the runway at Port Stanley. Using ageing Vulcan bombers, crews flew a round trip of 8000 miles from Ascension Island to the South Atlantic. Such a journey required not just in-flight refuelling, but re-fuelling of the refuelling planes - a hazardous undertaking that had never before been attempted on such a scale.
In this drama, Robin Glendinning recreates the nail-biting adventure. Not only were the raids themselves difficult to pull off, but even getting the aircraft ready for the flights was a major task. Aviation museums across the world were raided for spares, and key parts retrieved from junkyards.
But there are those who question whether or not the operation was militarily useful - or whether or not the same job could have been done more effectively using planes attached to the naval task force. Was this really about war, or was it about the RAF trying to carve out a role for itself in a conflict that threatened to be entirely dominated by the Army and Royal Navy? And how successful were the raids anyway?
Producer: Jolyon Jenkins.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b04wwtsy)
West Yorkshire
Eric Robson hosts the horticultural panel programme from West Yorkshire. Bob Flowerdew, Christine Walkden and Matthew Wilson take questions from an audience of local gardeners.
Produced by Howard Shannon
Assistant Producer: Hannah Newton
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
This week's questions and answers:
Q. Can you grow fruit trees in containers and raised beds?
A. Yes, if they are on dwarfing stocks. Most modern Apple trees would be fine and the bigger the container the less watering they would need. Apricots and Peaches are surprisingly easy, so long as they are well sheltered. Try 'Tomcot', 'Flavourcot', 'Goldcot' Apricot varieties, and the 'Bonanza' Peach variety which likes being in a pot. Cherries wouldn't work so well though. Regular watering and a correct feeding pattern is the secret to growing fruit trees in containers.
Q. I live next to woodland, what is the most effortless way to prevent Brambles from invading my garden?
A. Dig out the plants as soon as they appear. Get a pair of Kevlar gloves so you can pull them up. Cut the roots with secateurs if you can't wrench them out. If the plants do take over, try making Blackberry vinegar - it's delicious. You could try training some across your fence to harvest the fruit. Put really thick mulch down (five or six inches) and this makes it easier to pull out the saplings.
Q. What plants would you recommend planting up against the red brick of Leeds' terraced housing?
A. Bob says avoid climbers because they can take over and are hard to keep under control. Try instead, Cotoneaster horizontalis or Pyracantha. Bunny disagrees with Bob and recommends a rambling Rose called 'Lady of the Lake' and an evergreen climbing Hydrangea, Hydrangea Seemannii. Grape vines would also work. Matthew recommends Itea Ilicifolia and Camsis radicans.
Q. How do you propagate Rosemary from an old plant?
A. Get the plant to put on new growth by giving it lots of water, feed it in the spring, cut it back a little and try to get more light on it. Take cuttings from the new growth. Use the layering technique - take a sprig through the hole of a plant pot, then fill with compost and this should take. The original plant should live for thirty of forty years if you cut it back every year to encourage fresh growth.
Q. What herbs or vegetables would the panel recommend growing in a hanging basket?
A. Mint would take well as would Marjoram. Avoid Tarragon, Parsley and Chervil as these tend to grow vertically. If you put two hanging baskets back to back you could grow Thyme in a kind of ball.
Q. I'm looking for low growing plants that would thrive in a very shady garden. What could you recommend?
A. Cyclamen, Lily of the Valley, Alchemilla Mollis, Pear Trees, Arbutus Unedo (Strawberry Tree), Ferns (Dryopteris Wallichiana, Erythrosora, Athyrium Niponicum), white Roses, white Foxgloves, Sweet Rocket, Japanese Anemones, Hydrangea Paniculata Unique and Daphnes. Keep it simple in a north-facing Garden with topiary pieces like Ilex Crenata (Japanese Holly) and Ferns such as Dryopteris wallichiana, Dryopteris erythrosora, Athrium japonicum (Japanese Painted Fern) and our own native version of Deschamsia Caespitosa 'Goldtau'.
Q. Two years ago I bought a Japanese Cherry Tree, Prunus Nipponica Brilliant and it flowers well each spring but then the new growth dies back - why is this happening?
A. This could be blossom end wilt which is passed by insects. The only thing you can do if this is the case is trim off the dead matter. This could also be happening because the plant is pot bound. Go and give it a good tug, if it comes out the ground then plant it again, properly!
Q. I'm struggling to grow Borage from seed. Any tips on how I can improve my chances of success?
A. Maybe the moisture levels are wrong. Buy a couple of plants and let it self-seed. Or, try getting seed from somewhere else - you might be sowing bad seed.
FRI 15:45 Irish International (b04wwtt0)
An Ulsterman in New York by Nick Laird
Three original stories from current, cutting edge Irish writers, Nick Laird, Philip O Ceallaigh and Robert McLiam Wilson, who have chosen to leave Ireland and make their homes in New York, Bucharest and Paris who each give their own unique take on being an Irishman living and writing abroad.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (b04xf1d1)
Jean Cabut and Georges Wolinski, Luise Rainer, Edward Brooke and Chip Young
Matthew Bannister on
The French cartoonists Jean Cabut and Georges Wolinski who were among the twelve people who died when gunmen stormed the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
The German born actress Luise Rainer who won two Oscars, but ended her Hollywood career when she fell out with the movie mogul Louis B Mayer.
Edward Brooke who was the first African American to be elected to the US senate.
And Chip Young, the session guitarist and producer who played on hits for Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton and many more.
FRI 16:30 More or Less (b04xf1d5)
A&E Waiting Times
It's been reported that the NHS in England has missed its four-hour A&E waiting time target with performance dropping to its lowest level for a decade. Tim Harford takes a closer look at the numbers with John Appleby, chief economist of the independent health think tank the King's Fund.
Do 85 people really own half the world's wealth? An advert for a BBC2 programme claims so, but More or Less listeners aren't so sure.
The media has also been full of stories about a new study, which reportedly shows that most cancers are caused by 'bad luck'. But, actually, it doesn't. Tim Harford finds out what the research really tells us about the causes of cancer, speaking to PZ Myers, a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris, in the United States and Professor George Davey-Smith, clinical epidemiologist at Bristol University.
The Financial Times' Chris Giles joins Tim Harford to discuss statistical claims which are both true and unfair.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Ruth Alexander
Programme credit: the song Bad Dream, featured in the item about cancer, was composed by Nick Thorburn.
FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (b04xf1d9)
Alison and Shirley - Still the Same Person
Fi Glover introduces a conversation between sisters remembering their unhappy relationships, and the support they have always given each other, even at a distance.
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 (b04xf1dc)
PM at
5pm- Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04wrqdw)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The Now Show (b04wwvnq)
Series 45
Episode 1
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis return with a new series of The Now Show, looking at the week's events via topical stand-up and sketches with guests Mitch Benn, Laura Shavin, Rich Hall and Vikki Stone.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (b04wwvns)
It's Pat's birthday. She's so pleased to see tony out of his hospital bed and sitting in a chair. He has even managed to get Pat a present of some perfume. He invites Pat to sit and tell him all the latest news. They have a moment together - Tony could hear Pat when she sat by his side and begged him not to leave her.
Helen thanks Johnny for all the extra work he has been doing. But she politely picks Johnny up on a mistake at the shop - it seems he neglected to check the paperwork on a veg box order, and supplied too much. Johnny gets frustrated and slightly defensive - he was only trying to help.
Jennifer suspects there's a conspiracy amongst the local press against reporting on the new Road activities and affairs of the Local Enterprise Partnership. Lynda has idea for a photo opportunity - with Plough Monday coming up, they should get hold of a horse-drawn plough which the SAVE committee can stand around.
Rob receives a letter from the Child Maintenance Service. He's horrified to discover that he has been named on the birth certificate for Jess's baby. Surely it's a mistake, says Helen.
FRI 19:15 Front Row (b04wwvnv)
Into the Woods, Sounds of 2015 Winners, Eva Dolan
Kirsty Lang talks to the director Rob Marshall about his film adaptation of Sondheim's musical, Into the Woods, that stars Meryl Streep.
Eva Dolan talks about her latest work of crime fiction, Tell No Tales. Set in Petersborough, the novel explores the racial tensions between the various immigrant communities there.
Kirsty meets Years & Years, the electro-pop trio who have just been crowned the winners of the BBC Sound of 2015.
In the last of Front Row's Dark Days of January items, in which artists capture the essence of January, and critics explain how this is done Antonia Quirke looks at a chilly, chilling scene from The Godfather Part II, a film that she watches every year at this time.
FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b04wwtsl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b04wwwc6)
Victoria Ayling, Jillian Creasy, Maajid Nawaz, Sir Keir Starmer, Tom Tugendhat
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion from Harlow College in Essex with prospective parliamentary candidates hoping to win a seat in the May General Election. Victoria Ayling is standing for UKIP, Jillian Creasy for the Green Party, Maajid Nawaz for the Liberal Democrats , Sir Keir Starmer for Labour and Tom Tugendhat for the Conservative Party.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b04wwwc8)
Charlie Hebdo
Adam Gopnick reflects on the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
"The notion that what some have called France's 'stark secularism' - or its level of unemployment, or its history of exclusion, that imposed invisibility - is in any way to blame or even a root cause for this, depends on being ignorant of the actual history of France."
Producer: Sheila Cook
Editor: Richard Knight.
FRI 21:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b04wwwcc)
5-9 January 1915
Epic drama series set in Great War Britain. In the final omnibus edition of Season 2, Folkestone mourns one of its missing and the Grahams await a special delivery...
Written by Katie Hims
Consultant Historian: Professor Maggie Andrews
Music: Matthew Strachan
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Directed and produced by: Lucy Collingwood
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
FRI 21:58 Weather (b04wrqdy)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b04xfc1h)
French hostage sieges end.
French security forces kill 2 brothers who've been at the centre of a massive police manhunt.
FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04wtrlj)
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher
In Hilary Mantel's mischievous story a knock at the door announces an unexpected visitor who has plans to alter the course of history as we know it. Harriet Walter reads.
The stories selected from Hilary Mantel's collection The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher for Book at Bedtime are dark and sharply observed. From the middle-class woman with powerful feelings about a former prime minister; the woman trapped in her apartment in Jeddah, to the two young girls who during the heat of the summer holidays venture into forbidden territory, each of the stories deal with psychological unease and at the same time are wickedly witty.
Hilary Mantel is the author of thirteen books. She is the first and only writer to have won the Man Booker Prize twice for her last two historical novels, Wolf Hall and Bringing Up the Bodies.
Harriet Walter is the reader.
Abridged by Julian Wilkinson
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.
FRI 23:00 Great Lives (b04wv045)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (b04wwwcp)
Mark D'Arcy reports from Westminster.
FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (b04wwwcx)
Alison and Shirley - Family Comes First
Fi Glover with a conversation about moving on from an unhappy life with the support of those you love.
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.