The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
Jenny Coverack's trilogy A Father for my Son is adapted from her own one-woman stage play, written with Robert Edwards, based on the autobiography and journals of the sculptor Kathleen, Lady Scott. After living in Paris as an art student, and 'vagabonding' around Europe, Kathleen has at last found the man she wants to be the father of the son she longs for: a celebrated, well-dressed, rather ugly explorer with eyes of a startling blue called Captain Robert Falcon Scott. When their son Peter is two, Captain Scott sets off for the South Pole, and Kathleen begins the journal she has promised to keep for him until his return.
With grateful acknowledgement to novelist Louisa Young, for her biography of her grandmother, Kathleen Scott, 'A Great Task of Happiness'.
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
In the second of four editions recorded at the Hay Festival, Caroline Ingraham explains why we should give animals choices. She is the founder of a new approach to animal welfare which gives domestic and captive animals the chance to "self-medicate" as, she says, research shows they would in the wild.
"Maybe it's time to re-evaluate our relationship with animals, and start perceiving them as active, rather than passive, beings."
Mark Tully considers the drawbacks of an overly strict religious upbringing. What are the pressures on those who stay within dogmatic religions in later life?
While acknowledging the potential for good in religions, the programme includes accounts from those who feel traumatised by childhoods in which freedom of thought was restricted, and those who have carried a sense of unworthiness into later life.
Mark also identifies the narrow line religious parents have to tread between encouraging children to share their faith and imposing it upon them.
But for all that a religious upbringing can traumatise, Mark also recognises the great loss that can be felt when escaping a past which engendered not just fear, guilt and a sense of shame, but provided an early source of meaning, connection and strength.
On Your Farm visits one of the UK's biggest salad growers, in the fens of Cambridgeshire, G's Fresh. Anna Hill meets some of the 1000 pickers from Eastern Europe and finds out how to pick 200 lettuces an hour! She explores the on-site accommodation housing 800 seasonal workers and finds out how a possible exit from the EU would hit the company.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
In this week's programme, Edward Stourton speaks to Dr Aref Ali Nayed, Islamic scholar and Libyan Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates about the rise of ISIS in Libya and UN proposals for a national unity government.
Ahead of the Pope's anticipated encyclical on the environment, Matt Wells reports from the US on concerns among conservatives that the Pope will be critical of consumerism and capitalism. Fr Augusto Zampini, Argentinian priest and theological advisor to CAFOD, assesses what is likely to be in the document.
This week, the leading traditionalist Anglo-Catholic bishop, the Right Reverend Mark Sowerby, changed his mind on the ordination of women in the Church of England. His boss, the Bishop of Chichester Martin Warner, himself an Anglo-Catholic, gives his reaction, and religious journalist Ruth Gledhill explains the implications for the Church.
Following the imprisonment of four tourists who posed naked on Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia, religious writer and conservationist, Martin Palmer, examines the sacred significance of the site.
Tomorrow marks the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta. Bob Walker visits Lincoln to explore the city's special connections with the charter.
And as millions of Muslims in Britain prepare for the arrival of the holy month of Ramadan, we look at the relationship between Ramadan and the internet.
And now Sir Tom Stoppard presents The Radio 4 Appeal for Prisoners of Conscience
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal, mark the back of the envelope 'Prisoners of Conscience'.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
Magna Carta - the Great Charter which gave us the right to trial by a jury of our peers - is held to be the root of Liberty, Justice and Democracy in the English speaking world. It was drafted by Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton - but King John, staying at his royal castle of Odiham, who set his seal to his barons' demands 800 years ago this week, didn't give up his belief that he was above the Law without a struggle! Worship from Odiham Parish church is led by the Vicar, The Rev'd Alison Brown, and the guest preacher is The Rev'd Robin Griffith-Jones, Master of the Temple. Malcolm Archer accompanies his own Magna Carta anthem, specially composed this year for Odiham Church choir. Producer: Rowan Morton-Gledhill.
"A school's core strength is that it's a school" writes AL Kennedy. She argues that the "monetisation" of learning - where its value is assessed in purely monetary terms - risks destroying the very essence of learning. She says we need to rethink this "quiet mess" before it's too late.
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Brett Westwood presents the melodious warbler. A lemon-yellow warbler singing on a sunny Spanish hillside will be the well-named Melodious Warbler. They are slightly smaller than blackcaps, moss-green above and pale yellow below. You may occasionally see them in the UK in late summer or autumn. The song is melodious and the bird often includes nasal chattering phrases that sound like house sparrows.
Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.
The crowds gather for Open Farm Sunday, and Jennifer gets some unwanted publicity.
Kirsty Young's castaway this week is Rebecca Adlington - Britain's most successful female swimmer.
A multiple medal winner and record breaker she's packed a lot in at a young age, first grabbing the nation's attention by winning two golds at the Beijing Olympics and breaking a world record into the bargain. When she got back home she was granted the Freedom of Mansfield and the Mayor gave her a pair of golden shoes. The Queen opted for the more conventional approach, bestowing an OBE.
She went on to win two more medals at the London 2012 Olympics and when all the cheering and flag waving had died down and the games were over she announced her retirement. She's hardly been a slouch since - appearing regularly on TV, getting married and in recent months getting ready for the birth of her first child, a daughter, who was born Monday 8, June, 2015. She's only 26.
One of three sisters, family life was dominated by early morning training session at the local pool and it wasn't long before little Becky was out of the shallow end and heading for the fast lane ... The Sherwood Baths are now renamed The Rebecca Adlington Swimming Centre.
Nicholas Parsons hosts the perennially popular panel game in which guests Paul Merton, Gyles Brandreth, Lucy Beaumont, and Marcus Brigstocke attempt to talk for 60 seconds with no hesitation, repetition or deviation.
Cook and food writer Simon Hopkinson shares his culinary life story with Sheila Dillon. In a food career spanning four decades he's been an influential chef, television cook and author of the "most useful cookbook of all time".
In this first of two special editions, Simon covers his early food memories to his time as a chef, at the height of his powers, in the kitchens of Hilaire and Bibendum restaurants.
Born in Lancashire, Simon Hopkinson was influenced by his parents home cooking and their regular trips to Bury Market. Early memories include the smell of his mother's jugged hare to the sight of black puddings and cheeses on busy market stalls.
In his teens he was committed to a future career in a restaurant kitchen and found work in the nearby Normandie restaurant under the gifted and demanding chef Yves Champea.
By 20 he'd opened his own restaurant and would soon receive awards and high praise from respected guides. In the years that followed he'd work as a restaurant inspector for Egon Ronay and then spend time as a private chef.
By the late 1980's he was back in the restaurant world and one of London's most influential chefs. Sheila Dillon finds out what motivated him throughout and why he was so confident that his life would be one spent in kitchens.
When performer and artist Scottee decided to invent a fat pride talent show and beauty pageant, he wanted to find the most successful, beautiful, glorious fat person ever. And he wanted to celebrate the lives and bodies of people, he was sick of hearing described as sad, lazy and a drain on the NHS. He created Hamburger Queen.
Little did Scottee realise that his search for a winner would involve a messy confrontation with the politics of fat-shaming, self-esteem and the unadulterated pleasure of dressing up and showing off. And glitter.
Is the world ready for Scottee's personal brand of fat activism? You be the judge.
The programme stars the Hamburger Queen cast, contestants Sin Cinnamon, Romi, Vivacious von Vixen and Nina Neon, fat tap troupe The Cholesterols, tv medic Dr Christian Jessen and Scottee's mum.
Eric Robson hosts the show from Bristol, the European Green Capital City 2015. The panel includes Christine Walkden, Chris Beardshaw, and Matthew Wilson.
Fi Glover introduces conversations about the changes imposed by acquired brain injury, how friends each recorded a year in their lives, and the impossibility of life without song, in the Omnibus edition of the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Johnny traverses Europe trying to save Mr Crawley, who has a revelation in the rain. Meanwhile, Archdeacon Grantly is having trouble with his temper.
Mrs Baxter ..... Maggie Steed
Lily Dale ..... Scarlett Alice Johnson
Johnny Eames ..... Samuel Barnett
Mr Crawley ..... Adam Kotz
Grace Crawley ..... Rhiannon Neads
Henry Grantly ..... Mark Edel-Hunt
Archdeacon Grantly..... Nigel Anthony
Lady Lufton ..... Kate Buffery
Mrs Proudie ..... Joanna Monro
Bishop Proudie ..... James Lailey
Dr Tempest ..... Sam Dale
Mr Thumble ..... Stephen Critchlow
Emily ..... Ayesha Antoine
Clubman ..... David Acton
This is the final book in Anthony Trollope's Barchester Chronicles and many of the characters from both "The Small House at Allington" and "Framley Parsonage" return to finish his story of Barsetshire life set between 1855 and 1867. These 4 episodes focus in part on the story of the proud but impoverished vicar of Hogglestock, Josiah Crawley and the accusation that he has stolen and cashed a cheque. The whole of Barset has an opinion about Crawley's guilt or innocence, but no-one is more affected by it than Archdeacon Grantly's son, Henry, who has fallen in love with Crawley's daughter, Grace. Meanwhile, Johnny Eames has returned to try for the hand of Lily Dale, who is still devasted by the betrayal of her amoral fiance, Adolphus Crosbie. Happily, Mrs Baxter returns to tell the tale and give her inimitable opinion on events.
Maggie Steed plays Mrs Baxter and is joined by Adam Kotz, Tim Pigott-Smith, Samuel Barnett and Scarlett Alice Johnson.
The Barchester Chronicles is Anthony Trollope's much-loved series of witty, gently satirical stories of provincial life set within the fictional cathedral town of Barchester and the surrounding county of Barsetshire. With a focus on the lives, loves and tribulations of the local clergy and rural gentry, the canvas is broad and colourful, with a wonderful set of iconic characters whose lives we become intimately involved in as they grow up, grow old and fall in or out of love and friendship across the years.
In a summery programme, Mariella Frostrup talks to debut novelist Laura Barnett about her book, The Versions of Us which imagines three possible stories for its protagonists, Eva and Jim, and is expected to be a big holiday read. Chris White, fiction buyer at Waterstones discusses summer reading habits and recommends three titles to pack in our suitcases. Meanwhile Ayelet Gundar-Goshen sends a postcard from Tel Aviv revealing what people are reading on the beaches there. And finally a summer literary festival with a difference: Cathy Galvin and author David Almond on the Tablet Festival which will celebrate the Catholic imagination and writing.
Roger McGough celebrates Bloomsday with poetry by James Joyce and Paul Durcan. The programme also features the usual varied selection of listeners' requests for poets including Kenneth Slessor, Julia Darling and Fannie Stearns-Gifford. Producer Sally Heaven.
With the urgent need for more housing, Britain's planning laws are under pressure like never before. Greenbelt land and even sites designated as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, are being earmarked for development. So how far can we protect the countryside when the need for houses is so acute? Allan Urry reveals new figures on scale of the problem and investigates claims that the planning system is being stretched to breaking point.
An Englishman, a Scotsman and a novelist go into a studio to talk about death and dry cleaning. And being Robert Peston, Eddie Mair and Julian Barnes, the result is truly memorable radio. Another Radio 4 stalwart, Edward Stourton, examines The Pope's supposed, political leanings, and songwriter Ray Davies talks about his days and dramas. All this, and nothing the same...
After the embarrassment of Kate's house-cleansing ceremony Fallon doesn't want to do anything for her upcoming birthday. Besides, she'll be officially over the hill at thirty. Harrison thinks it's a shame to do nothing. Fallon reminds him she hates surprises; they settle on a drink in the Flood bar. Privately he speaks to Jolene about getting Fallon's favourite film up on the big screen and secretly inviting her friends. Jolene thinks he's mad.
Kenton's broadcasting Kate's party debacle to whoever will listen. Fallon feels sorry for her; she always seem to get into scrapes.
Mike feels he's doing things the wrong way round retiring to the noisy city. Neil assures him he'll get used to it. Mike's glad Brenda will be at their leaving do on Friday. Resolutely cheerful, he asserts that at least Roy's staying put, and that he'll be back and forth to Ambridge for a good while to come.
Kenton discovers the fete's been cancelled. He's horrified; why has no-one consulted him? He and Jolene can't survive without events like that! He rants to Jolene about village morale and the importance of communal jollity. He tries to get Fallon on board as well. Gradually winning them over, they hatch a plan: the Save the Ambridge Fete campaign starts here!
Inspector Lestrade was made to look a fool in the Sherlock Holmes stories. Now he is writing his memories and has a chance to get his own back, with tales of Holmes' rivals. He finishes the present series with the blind detective Max Carrados who tries to stop international master criminal Fane from selling compromising letters which could derail an upcoming royal wedding.
A new series in which poets adapt their own poems into short stories. 'A Potion' springs from Jacob Polley's poem 'The Remedy', from his 2003 collection 'The Brink'.
Jacob Polley was born in Carlisle, Cumbria. He is the author of four books of poems, The Brink (2003), Little Gods (2006), The Havocs (2012) and Jackself (2016) all published by Picador, as well as a novel, Talk of the Town.
It's the last in the series so we're packing in the statistical goodies so that you can go into numerical hibernation until August. We're looking at the street value of drugs: when police claim that they've confiscated hundreds of millions of pounds worth of narcotics, where do those numbers come from? And how has the dark internet changed drug prices?
We'll also be looking at claims that those of us who aren't binging on drugs are binging on biscuits instead. Apparently much of the UK and almost the entire population of Ireland is going to be obese before long. But how have such alarming forecasts fared in the past?
We're often told that we consume so much that we need one and a half planets - and not just to provide room for all those obese people. What does that number even mean, and is it helpful?
film star Christopher Lee, internationally famous for his villainous, on screen roles. Cookery writer and broadcasting pioneer Marguerite Patten, explorer Major 'Roy' Homard who made the first crossing of the Antarctic, German born band leader and purveyor of 'Happy Music' James Last and actor Ron Moody, best known for playing Fagin in Oliver.
Pope Francis' critique of modern economics has made him an icon for the Left and prompted claims that he is a Communist. The leader of 1.2 billion Catholics has called capitalism, at best, a source of inequality and, at worst, a killer.
Edward Stourton examines the Pope's critique of the free market system and explores the origins of his thinking in Latin America and in Catholic Social Teaching. Is Pope Francis, as his critics claim, dragging his church to the Left and promoting a Marxist branch of liberation theology? And what does his insistence on seeing the world through the eyes of the poor mean for modern notions of charity?
We hear from the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols; corporate lawyer turned Catholic priest, Fr Augusto Zampini Davies; Chief Economist at The Heritage Foundation (a free market think tank based in Washington), Stephen Moore; Professor or Finance, Public Policy and Ethics at St Mary's University, Twickenham and Programme Director at the Institute for Economic Affairs, Philip Booth; Labour Peer Maurice Glasman; and Austen Ivereigh, author of The Great Reformer - Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope.
Zoe Williams of The Guardian looks at how the newspapers are covering the biggest stories.
Director of the National Theatre Rufus Norris talks about the film adaptation of 'London Road'
Francine Stock visits the Sheffield Documentary Festival to talk to Oscar nominated film maker Joshua Oppenheimer about his latest work 'The Look of Silence'. Fellow documentary maker John Akomfrah discusses the psyche of non fiction film making.
Presenter Francine Stock. Producer Ruth Sanderson.
MONDAY 15 JUNE 2015
MON 00:00 Midnight News (b05xw6zp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (b05xgn2m)
Lesbian Lives in Russia; Big Data
Lesbian lives in Russia: Laurie Taylor talks to Francesca Stella, Research Fellow in Sociology at the University of Glasgow, and author of a study which explores the changing nature of same sex relationships amongst women since the demise of state communism. From the metropolis to the provinces, she finds evidence of women negotiating visible, as well as closeted lives.
Also, is 'big data' leading to the pervasive 24/7 surveillance of every moment of our lives? Frank Pasquale, Professor of Law at the University of Maryland, argues that unlimited data collection is having unforeseen and risky consequences.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b05xw801)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b05xw6zt)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b05xw6zw)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b05xw700)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (b05xw702)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b05xwj7q)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (b05xwj7v)
A suspected case of BSE has been identified by the Irish Department of Agriculture. If confirmed it would be the first case of BSE there since 2013 and could threaten Irish export markets.
Today is the deadline for EU subsidy claims. It's been a long running saga with farmers facing real difficulties in registering their claims. But will they receive their payments on time?
A Cornish dairy farmer has made the tough decision to sell up and leave the industry.
He joins around 450 other dairy farmers who have left the industry over the past year.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Emily Hughes.
MON 05:56 Weather (b05xw706)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03bks90)
Jack Snipe
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Wildlife Sound Recordist, Chris Watson, presents the Jack Snipe. The song of the Jack snipe has been likened to the sound of a distant horse cantering along a road. To hear it though, you need to visit Scandinavian bogs and mires where these small waders breed. When the ice seals their northern breeding areas jack snipes head south and west and many winter in the British Isles.
MON 06:00 Today (b05xx8hm)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (b05xx8hp)
The Value of Art with Grayson Perry and Hannah Rothschild
On Start the Week Andrew Marr discusses the value and authenticity of art. In her novel The Improbability of Love, Hannah Rothschild satirises the art world from the Russian oligarchs and sheiks ready to spend excessive amounts, to the unscrupulous dealers and politicians, as she explores what a painting is really worth. The artist Grayson Perry has never been slow to laugh at the art world and question the role of the artist, and in his latest exhibition he brings Provincial Punk to Margate. Xavier Bray is a curator at the Dulwich Picture Gallery which earlier this year placed a cheap Chinese copy among its collection to see if visitors could spot the difference, and the filmmaker Patrick Mark tells the story of the iconic luxury brand from the 19th century - Fabergé.
Producer: Katy Hickman.
MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b05xx8hr)
Walking Away
Episode 1
Not content with walking the Pennine Way as a modern day troubadour (an experience recounted in his bestseller Walking Home), Simon Armitage has followed up that journey with a walk of the same distance but through the very opposite terrain and direction, far from home.
The restless poet swaps the moorland uplands of the north for the coastal fringes of Britain's south west, once again giving readings every night, but this time through Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, taking poetry into distant communities and tourist hot-spots, busking his way from start to finish.
From the surreal pleasuredome of Minehead Butlins to a smoke-filled roundhouse on the Penwith Peninsula, then out to the Isles of Scilly and beyond, Armitage tackles this personal Odyssey with all the poetic reflection and personal wit we've come to expect from one of Britain's best loved and most popular writers.
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b05xx8ht)
What influence do celebrities have on our lives?
What influence do celebrities have on our lives? It's a question facing the judges for this year's Woman's Hour Power List who are in the process of coming up with the names of the ten most influential women. Do people like Kim Kardashian, who's already divided opinion among the judges, have too much influence?
Today's the last day for members of the Parliamentary Labour Party to nominate their next leader. Three women declared they'd stand - Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall and Mary Creagh. And four women have put themselves forward to be deputy leader. So what, if any, impact has having so many women in contention had?
Despite all the attention on younger women 20 per cent of new diagnoses and nearly 50 per cent of cervical cancer deaths occur in women over the age of 64. So why are women over the age of 50 not attending their screenings?
And as part of National Refugee week, the Regional Asylum Activism Project in Manchester is highlighting the plight of refugees by telling their stories. 49 year old Marzia Babakarkhail who was a judge in Afghanistan talks about out her struggle to settle in a brand new country after she was forced out of her homeland in 2008 following an attempt on her life..
Presenter Jane Garvey
Producer Beverley Purcell.
MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b05xx8hw)
Cyrano de Bergerac
Episode 1
Glyn Maxwell's adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. Swordsman, Philosopher, Poet Raconteur - Cyrano is all of these things , but none of them make him happy. What he wants more than anything is the love of the beautiful Roxane. But he has one huge problem that is as plain as the nose on his face. Is he too ugly to be loved ? Especially when the new handsome cadet Christian de Neuvillette also declares his love for her .
Music by Harry Blake
Directed in Salford by Susan Roberts.
MON 11:00 Inside Interpol (b05xx8hy)
Jake Wallis Simons examines the workings of Interpol, the international police organisation with a unique role, a mysterious image and a complex and sometimes troubled history.
Based in Lyon, France, but staffed by police officers from across the globe, it is Interpol's duty to help combat international criminality, from terrorism and cyber-crime to counterfeiting and people trafficking.
As Interpol faces the challenges of increasingly sophisticated organised crime, its own financial difficulties, and complaints about politicisation, Jake explores how it can and should respond. He talks to leading figures within Interpol, including the new Secretary General, Jurgen Stock.
Producer: Martin Rosenbaum.
MON 11:30 So On and So Forth (b05xx8x5)
Episode 2
Sketch group So On and So Forth features John Sheerman, Nick Gadd and Martin Allanson, with talented comedy actress Alison Thea-Skot recruited in 2014 to bring some class to the proceedings.
So On and So Forth is a sketch group with a very clear, slightly nihilistic perspective on the world. Everything is funny if you look at it the wrong way.
They formed as a group in 2010 and have been defining their particularly British style of sketch comedy ever since. They've tested out sketches on the comedy circuit, in pubs and theatres, including a full month at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2011 and several trips to Latitude and the Leicester Comedy Festival.
They have also recorded over 30 sketches which have been posted on their YouTube channel and collectively accrued almost 300,000 views to date.
In 2011 they won the Cofilmic award for Best Online Sketch, and one of their YouTube sketches found its way to the USA where it featured on Comedy Central's hit US show Tosh.0 as video of the week.
With one thing leading to another, the group were invited to perform in the second series of Sketchorama on Radio 4. It wasn't long until Radio 4 Comedy saw their potential and commissioned a four part series for the group.
Produced by Gus Beattie
A Comedy Unit production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2015.
MON 12:00 News Summary (b05xw70f)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 Home Front (b05xx92n)
15 June 1915 - Sylvia Graham
The Graham household is in chaos and certainly not prepared for any visitors.
Written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz and Georgia Fitch
Directed by Lucy Collingwood
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
MON 12:15 You and Yours (b05xx92q)
Family Doctors, Cost of Living, Elderly Carers
An analysis of NHS figures suggests that in some parts of England, GP's patient lists are expanding rapidly, with doctors taking on more and more patients. It is partly as a result of practice mergers, but it is also being blamed on closures and the national shortage of GPs. We examine the pressures facing GPs and the challenge of recruiting more doctors to general practice.
Figures suggest that the cost of living has fallen in the last six months, with lower fuel and food prices making life a little easier for many. We return to a group of You & Yours listeners to hear their personal experience.
A recent report from Age UK and Carers UK suggested that the number of older carers is increasing, with many struggling to look after loved ones, while managing their own health problems. An elderly Lancashire couple reflect on how their lives have changed as they face the challenges of dementia and leukaemia.
For more information on dementia, the Alzheimer's Society runs a dementia helpline: 0300 222 1122.
Producer: Jonathan Hallewell
Presenter: Winifred Robinson.
MON 12:57 Weather (b05xw70k)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 13:00 World at One (b05xx9px)
15/06/205
After a seventeen year old from West Yorkshire reportedly carried out a suicide bombing in Iraq, we speak to a family friend of the teenager who went to Syria with him who tells us his parents did their best to stop him joining Islamic State.
Four Labour MPs have received enough backing to go through to the next stage of the contest to choose a new leader;
And members of the Royal Family and the Prime Minister mark eight hundred years since the sealing of Magna Carta.
MON 13:45 Napoleon: The Man and the Myths (b05xx9pz)
Episode 1
Napoleon was savaged by British caricaturists during his lifetime. They loved to portray him as 'little Boney' - a short, uncouth, villainous, Corsican upstart. In this programme, historian Andrew Roberts dispels some of those myths.
Recorded partly on location in Paris, Roberts visits Napoleon's tomb and the Foundation Napoleon, where the Emperor's huge correspondence is kept.
Far from the short bully of contemporary propaganda, Andrew Roberts suggests Napoleon was charming, learned, a gifted military tactician - and of average height.
Produced by Victoria Ferran and Susan Marling
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 14:00 The Archers (b05xwf5m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Drama (b05xx9q1)
Foursome
Two couples - Lisa and Doug, Jan and Carl - have been friends for over four decades. But as they've got older their get-togethers have become more infrequent. Tonight, in a soulless, too-expensive restaurant, a revelation is about to send them spiralling back into their past, back to those other momentous meal-time moments that changed the shape of their future forever.
A funny and heart-warming tale of friendship and the passing of time.
Directed by Helen Perry
A BBC Cymru Wales Production
Foursome is Simon Crowther's first play for radio. The Cardiff-born writer is a long-standing contributor to Coronation Street and has penned over 160 episodes for the hit ITV show.
Eve Myles is best known for playing Gwen Cooper in Torchwood, alongside her roles in Broadchurch, Belonging and Frankie.
Rakie Ayola was a regular in Holby City, playing nurse Kyla Tyson.
MON 15:00 Counterpoint (b05xx9q3)
Series 29
Heat 2, 2015
(2/13)
Which Italian musical term translates as 'an amusement'? And of which folk group was Adge Cutler the leader until his death in 1974?
The competition continues for the 29th annual Counterpoint champion, with would-be musical masterminds from Surrey, Kent and Berkshire taking part this week at the Radio Theatre in London.
Paul Gambaccini asks the questions, and as usual they cover the widest possible range of music - from the classical repertoire to jazz, stage and film musicals, TV themes, classic rock and sixty years of the pop charts. The contestants have to prove the breadth of their musical knowledge as well as specialising in a chosen topic from Paul's list, of which they've had no prior warning.
Today's winner goes through to the semi-final stage later in the summer.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (b060p54w)
Simon Hopkinson: A Life Through Food - Part 2
Cook and writer Simon Hopkinson was at the height of his powers in the kitchen of Bibendum in London in the early 1990s, but he'd walk away from professional cooking to focus on his food writing.
In the second part of this interview with Sheila Dillon he explains why he left restaurant cooking behind, focus on writing that led to the "most useful cookbook of all time".
Simon describes life as chef at Bibendum restaurant, which counted among its loyal customers Elizabeth David, Dirk Bogarde and Alec Guinness. In 1994, aged only 40, he decided to move on.
For a decade there would be modest sales of his first book, Roast Chicken and Other Stories, and then a magazine poll in 2005 brought it to public attention and soon after, at one point it would be outselling copies of Harry Potter.
Sheila Dillon explores Simon's lifelong fascination with food and cooking and finds out why he no longer wanted to focus on life as a head chef.
MON 16:00 Motown - Speaking In The Streets (b03nt8wt)
In 1970, Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown, set up a Motown spoken word record label.
It was called Black Forum and recorded poetry, civil rights speeches, African-American soldiers in Vietnam and more. It closed in 1973 after eight releases. Those releases have started to attract interest with some reissued. They stand as a powerful testament to the African-American experience at a turbulent time in America.
The financial educator and spoken word record collector Alvin Hall listens to the recordings and talks to those involved in their creation.
Featuring: :
* Theatre director and producer Woodie King Jr., Producer of “Black Spirits: Festival of New Poets in America”, and “It’s Nation Time: African Visionary Music”
* Professor Suzanne E Smith, author of "Dancing in the Street: Motown and the Cultural Politics of Detroit"
* Pat Thomas, author of "Listen Whitey: The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965 – 1975"
* Elaine Brown, singer/songwriter of the album “Elaine Brown” and former leader of the Black Panthers
* Suzanne de Passe, former Creative Director and President of Motown
* Amiri Baraka, star of “Black Spirits: Festival of New Poets in America”, “It’s Nation Time: African Visionary Music” and civil rights activist, poet, and writer
Black Forum releases:
* Dr Martin Luther King Jr. – Why I Oppose The War In Vietnam
* Stokely Carmichael – Free Huey
* Langston Hughes and Margaret Danner – Writers Of The Revolution
* Guess Who’s Coming Home – Black Fighting Men Recorded Live In Vietnam
* Ossie Davis and Bill Cosby – Address The Congressional Black Caucus
* Black Spirits - Festival of New Black Poets in America
* Imamu Amiri Baraka – It’s Nation Time
* Elaine Brown – Elaine Brown
Producer: Ekene Akalawu
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2014.
MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (b05xx9q5)
Compassion
The very public failures of the Mid Staffordshire National Health Service Foundation Trust raised serious questions about the standard of care in some hospitals. Two Enquiries agreed that there had been "appalling" emergency care with deficiencies at "virtually every stage." What would have prevented such a humanitarian failure? Some said that an obsession with targets and bureaucracy had been allowed to obscure the needs of patients. Others suggested that nurses in particular had lost the capacity to care. Again and again we heard the word "Compassion". Good old fashioned Compassion - a concept central to the world's religious tradition - just wasn't fashionable in an individualistic and competitive society.
Ernie Rea is joined by Paul Gilbert, Professor of Psychology at the University of Derby: Anna Smajdor lecturer in Medical Ethics at the University of East Anglia; and Joshua Hordern Associate Professor of Christian Ethics at the University of Oxford.
Producer: Rosie Dawson.
MON 17:00 PM (b05xx9q7)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b05xw70r)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 Just a Minute (b05xxc00)
Series 72
Episode 5
Nicholas Parsons hosts the perennially popular panel game in which guests Paul Merton, Tim Rice, Lisa Tarbuck & Graham Norton attempt to talk for 60 seconds with no hesitation, repetition or deviation.
Hayley Sterling blows the whistle.
Produced by Victoria Lloyd.
A BBC Comedy Production.
MON 19:00 The Archers (b05xxc02)
Christine feels she's outstayed her welcome at the Stables. She's sure Alistair will be glad to see the back of her - he seems to be getting very irritable lately. Peggy has a radical proposal; how would Chris feel about moving in with her? She'd be doing Peggy a favour. Elizabeth and Shula think it's a wonderful idea, and persuade reticent Chris to give it some consideration.
Pip's revelling in post-exam joy and fresh air. David's happy to have her help again, especially as she reports the milk yield's almost back up to last year's pre-flood levels. Pip asks David tentatively whether Brookfield could rent some land to the Fairbrothers. David thinks not; there's too much uncertainty about the road to compromise usable acreage.
Elizabeth thinks it's a real shame about the fete. Shula comments that even Lynda's agreed to the cancellation without putting up a fight; there's probably a bit of post-flood fatigue setting in. While at Brookfield delivering presents for David to take to Prudhoe for Ruth's birthday, Elizabeth takes the opportunity to ask him what he thinks about offering Lower Loxley to the fete committee. David's in favour. They agree to run it past Jill.
MON 19:15 Front Row (b05xxc04)
John Wilson talks to Ian McKellen about his role as an elderly Sherlock Holmes in the new film Mr Holmes. Sir Ian explains how, now he is 76, he related to his character's struggle to recall past events.
Stephen Witt on his book How Music Got Free, a fascinating account of the digital music revolution, from the invention of the MP3 to the near-collapse of the music industry.
Boyd Hilton, television editor of Heat Magazine reviews the second series of True Detectives. The setting has switched from humid, voluptuous Lousiana to the scorched concrete of Los Angeles. The acclaimed drama follows three police officers and a career criminal as they navigate a web of conspiracy in the aftermath of a murder.
And, on the day The Clangers, to the delight of right thinking people of all ages, return to our televisions, Kay Benbow, Controller of CBeebies, and Dean Weller, the CEO of Generation Media, a company which researches the viewing habits of children, discuss with John the changing forms of children's television.
MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b05xx8hw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
MON 20:00 Every Case Tells a Story (b05xxc06)
The Case of Kolkata
Clive Anderson looks at a variety of famous and infamous court cases and retells the story that the case brought into the public eye.
In this programme he explores a case brought before the High Court of Kolkata in 2003, which aimed to decide once and for all whether the city of Kolkata had in fact been founded Job Charnock, a representative of the East India Company in 1690, as the history books claimed.
Featuring: William Dalrymple, Krishna Dutta, PT Nair, Vikrant Pachnanda and Deborshi Roychoudhury.
MON 20:30 Analysis (b05xxc08)
Making Invisibles Visible
The UK is the world's second largest exporter of services - and has been for some time. The surplus generated by these "invisibles" - everything from banking to public relations to whizzy new phone apps - helps balance the country's stubbornly high deficit in "visibles" or things.
Yet politicians talk continually about the need to rebalance the economy away from services. Linda Yueh finds this puzzling. As with other advanced economies, services comprise a very large proportion of our output - around three-quarters of the economy - and yet we spend a great deal of time worrying about a far smaller and long declining part of it: manufacturing.
It is understandable to want to reduce our deficit in goods, says Linda. But while we try to do that, she argues, we should also try to understand more about the reasons for our success in services - and how to maintain and augment it. In this edition of "Analysis", she finds out why it is difficult to make invisibles visible and why it is important for our future growth and wealth that we do.
Along the way, she discovers how innovation in services is distinctive, why services firms invest heavily in their staff and why the popular enthusiasm for bashing bankers is misguided. We have to start loving the people we hate, Linda argues. And by making the invisible sector more visible, she says, we can make that process easier and more credible.
Producer: Simon Coates.
MON 21:00 Natural Histories (b05w99j5)
Sharks
Who can hear the word shark and not the music from the film Jaws? This 1975 film, based on a book from the previous year, is defined as a “watershed moment for sharks.” From being little thought about by most people sharks were suddenly propelled into the lime light as fearsome, ruthless killers whose intent was to harm us humans. An entertaining film became the death warrant for millions of sharks. Our terminology is not helpful.
We find it impossible to speak about sharks without using emotive language: seas are “infested,” sharks “menace” they “cruise around looking for a victim, they “invade” our swimming beaches etc. Crooks are “loan sharks.”
In Hawaiian culture they are often seen as protectors or brave fighters in battle.
We have a difficult relationship with sharks. We have traded their teeth and eaten their fins, so much so that millions are now killed annually for this delicacy for the aristocracy. Damien Hurst has tried to capture the fear of the shark in his famous tank, allowing the viewer to stand next to an open mouth without being in danger. We will always be challenged by this supreme predator, if we allow it to survive in the wild.
MON 21:30 Start the Week (b05xx8hp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 21:58 Weather (b05xw70t)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b05xxc0b)
Should South Africa have arrested Sudanese president ?
US expresses disappointment that Bashir - wanted for genocide - was able to fly home
MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b05xxc0d)
Saint Mazie
Episode 1
More than 90 years after Mazie Phillips - the proprietress of famed New York City movie theatre, the Venice - began her diary, it is discovered by a documentarian in search of a good story.
So who was Mazie Phillips? Diary extracts, interwoven with voices from past and present, paint a picture of her adventurous life - played out during the Jazz Age, when romance and booze were aplenty. But the Great Depression looms.
Episode 1 (of 10)
The Phillips girls hit New York. Mazie is unstoppable.
Written by Jami Attenberg - author of a story collection, Instant Love, and three novels, The Kept Man, The Melting Season, and The Middlesteins, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. She has also contributed essays and criticism to The New York Times, Real Simple, Elle, The Washington Post, and many other publications. Jami lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Abridged by Jeremy Osborne
Produced by Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 23:00 The Robert Peston Interview Show (with Eddie Mair) (b05xxc0g)
Esther Rantzen
What happens if you take the warring parties of radio's biggest feud and give them their own show? Radio 4 is about to find out as Eddie Mair and Robert Peston join forces to spring surprise guests on each other in a unique late night interview programme. Expect spontaneous discussions with a wide array of interesting figures.
Eddie and Robert have each chosen three guests of personal interest to them - all in the public eye - who they feel are worthy of a late night interview slot, keeping it secret from the other which guests they have chosen until the interview itself.
In this programme Eddie's first guest choice Esther Rantzen.
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (b05xxc0j)
Susan Hulme and the BBC's parliamentary team report as MPs begin scrutinising the detail of the Scotland Bill which gives greater tax raising powers to MSPs.
A senior Conservative calls for Scotland to be given full fiscal autonomy and "real home rule".
Peers debate the need for greater support to boost trade. And the Education Secretary is pressed by MPs to define a "coasting" school as the Government prepares to intervene in schools deemed to be under-performing.
TUESDAY 16 JUNE 2015
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b05xw71x)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b05xx8hr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b05xw71z)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b05xw721)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b05xw723)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b05xw725)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b05xxd1d)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b05xxd1g)
Permanent Pasture, Farm Drones, the Dairy Industry
A farmer says EU regulations mean he will have to plough up his field boundaries, which he uses to make hay for his cattle, in order to avoid it to be classed as permanent pasture despite the cost to wildlife.
Drones used on the farm, and more from the dairy industry.
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03bkfz4)
Rock Dove
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Wildlife Sound Recordist, Chris Watson, presents the Rock Dove. The birds that Woody Allen once described as "rats with wings" are for many the bane of urban life. Feral pigeons, as domesticated rock doves are known, live closely alongside us. But the same species has, over millennia, been cosseted by pigeon fanciers, used to deliver wartime messages and been housed in dovecotes.
TUE 06:00 Today (b05xxhvw)
Morning news and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather, Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (b05xxhvy)
Anil Seth on consciousness
Anil Seth is professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience at the Sackler Centre at the University of Sussex, where he studies consciousness.
His research has taken him in all kinds of directions, from reading philosophy, to computing and virtual reality, and mapping the brain. As well as running the interdisciplinary centre and carrying out experiments that test ideas about consciousness, Anil Seth has co-written a popular book, The 30 second brain, and was the consultant on Eye Benders, the winner of the Junior Royal Society Book Prize in 2014.
He talks to Jim al-Khalili about how scientists can study altered states of consciousness, such as sleep and coma. He explains how he uses virtual reality to understand conditions where our idea of ourselves is distorted, such as in the Alice in Wonderland syndrome.
TUE 09:30 One to One (b05xxhw0)
Michael Grade talks to Kolbassia Haoussou
Michael Grade freely admits he comes from a very privileged background, mainly because his grandparents took an enormous risk in fleeing from the Ukraine at the turn of the century and making a better life for their family in England. Michael has never had to take risks but he's fascinated by those who do and in this series of One to One he wants to talk to people who have risked everything for very different reasons.
In this programme he talks to Kolbassia Haoussou who fled from Chad leaving home, family and friends behind. He now lives here, in a country where the culture, climate and landscape are very alien and he still feels like an outsider. Has it all been worth it?
Kolbassia is now a spokesperson for Freedom from Torture, but why did he decide to take the unprecedented and very risky step of returning to Chad to check up on his family?
Producer: Lucy Lunt.
TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b05z2df4)
Walking Away
Episode 2
Not content with walking the Pennine Way as a modern day troubadour (an experience recounted in his bestseller Walking Home), Simon Armitage has followed up that journey with a walk of the same distance but through the very opposite terrain and direction, far from home.
The restless poet swaps the moorland uplands of the north for the coastal fringes of Britain's south west, once again giving readings every night, but this time through Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, taking poetry into distant communities and tourist hot-spots, busking his way from start to finish.
From the surreal pleasuredome of Minehead Butlins to a smoke-filled roundhouse on the Penwith Peninsula, then out to the Isles of Scilly and beyond, Armitage tackles this personal Odyssey with all the poetic reflection and personal wit we've come to expect from one of Britain's best loved and most popular writers.
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b05xxhw2)
Female-friendly Mosque; Justine Greening; the New Female Viagra
Michelle Obama is in London to promote the US President's Let Girls Learn initiative. We look at what the UK government is doing to support the education of girls around the world.
Plans are being made for a female friendly mosque in Bradford. We find out how much progress has been made and why some Muslim women feel they are marginalised by UK mosques.
How near are we to finding a safe medical treatment for female loss of sexual drive? The final decision in the US for the drug Flibanserin, designed to boost women's desire for sex, is due in August. We look at how this drug works, how effective it is, what the risks are and why it is causing such a stir.
A State of the World's Fathers Report has been published looking at the role of fatherhood in the global fight for gender equality. Is this an overlooked area that can help in the fight to end violence against women and children?
What do we know now about the women's votes in this last General Election? Was there a gender gap?
TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b05xxhw4)
Cyrano de Bergerac
Episode 2
Glyn Maxwell's adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. Swordsman, Philosopher, Poet Raconteur - Cyrano is all of these things , but none of them make him happy. What he wants more than anything is the love of the beautiful Roxane. But he has one huge problem that is as plain as the nose on his face. Is he too ugly to be loved ? Especially when the new handsome cadet Christian de Neuvillette also declares his love for her . However Christian's way with words needs a little help .
CYRANO, Tom Burke
ROXANE, Emily Pithon
VALVERT, ..Jonathan Keeble
LE BRET, Christopher Harper
DE GUICHE, Conrad Nelson
CHRISTIAN, Kieran Hodgson
RAGUENEAU, Roger Morlidge
Music by Harry Blake
Directed in Salford by Susan Roberts
TUE 11:00 Natural Histories (b05w99rp)
Butterflies
Shards of stained glass falling through sunlight – the butterfly is an image of beauty. Delicate, colourful yet exquisitely fragile we have painted and eulogised the butterfly from time immemorial.
A “butterfly mind” skips from subject to subject... they are modern metaphors for the trivial and light-hearted. Yet we forget that at times some butterflies have been used as menacing creatures.
Their eye-spots, used to deter predators, were interpreted as eyes watching you from hedgerow and meadow to make sure no lewd behaviour happened in the fields. The deep, blood red colour of the red admiral was seen as a sign of Christ’s crucifixion and therefore a symbol of suffering a death.
The butterfly metamorphoses between body forms, reminding us that our earthly body will one day be transformed.
Butterflies have also been the subject of overwhelming passion. Intense, obsessive collectors have chased them over every continent, even shooting them from the skies with guns and then trembling with overwhelming excitement as they put a blackened, torn creature into their displays. They are souls of the dead flying to heaven or an inspiration for fashion designers, or a symbol of death. Few creatures have had so much laid on their delicate shoulders.
Today, butterflies are symbols of freedom and harmony with nature, the poster insects for a utopia where people and nature are at one.
Original Producer : Sarah Pitt
Archive Producer : Andrew Dawes
Revised Repeat : First Broadcast BBC Radio 4; 16th June 2015
TUE 11:30 Minimal Impact (b05xxhw6)
Jesus' Blood and Fluffy Clouds
The story of the musical aesthetic and the ubiquitous technique of minimalism.
Fifty years since the emergence of a challenging new 'art school' attitude to musical composition emerged in the United States - in the work of Terry Riley, Steve Reich and others - various techniques associated with 'minimalism' have been absorbed into every aspect of modern musical life, from the pop industry and dance scene, to film scores and religious music, as well as contemporary concert music.
In this second episode, British composers trace how the minimalist aesthetic has informed music as diverse as John Tavener's Song for Athene and The Orb's Little Fluffy Clouds. Contributors include Gavin Bryars, composer of the iconic Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet, film and dance composer Jocelyn Pook, Indian percussion player and composer Talvin Singh, Alex Paterson of The Orb and the most minimal of English composers Laurence Crane.
Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:00 News Summary (b05xw727)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 Home Front (b05xxhw8)
16 June 1915 - Josiah King
The new police constable is on a mission to clean up Folkestone and won't accept excuses.
Written by Georgia Fitch
Directed by Lucy Collingwood
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
TUE 12:15 You and Yours (b05xxhwb)
Call You and Yours - Accents
A report on social mobility says the polished and privileged get all the best jobs, on call You & Yours we are asking if your accent has helped or hindered you in your life.
TUE 12:57 Weather (b05xw729)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 13:00 World at One (b05xxhwd)
We hear from the solicitor representing the husbands of the sisters from Bradford who are thought to have travelled to Syria with their children. The government is facing a rebellion over how it plans to hold the EU referendum. We ask whether there's a U turn in sight? The scientist and broadcaster Brian Cox tells us that Sir Tim Hunt's remarks about women in laboratories were ill advised but he shouldn't have been hounded out of office.
TUE 13:45 Napoleon: The Man and the Myths (b05yrw1s)
Episode 2
It's said that France became a police state under Napoleon. He wanted to know everything about his growing empire and, despite the revolution, crowned himself as Emperor to rule over it.
Historian Andrew Roberts challenges this bald account of events. He presents Napoleon as a ruler who rescued France from its post-revolutionary chaos, whose sense of order and efficiency was welcomed by his countrymen.
Roberts also argues that Napoleon was not interested in interfering in the lives of his subjects and that he broke with tradition by rewarding people of merit and talent - regardless of their class. For the first time, those of humble birth could rise to the highest positions in the country.
The programme is recorded partly on location in France.
Simon Russell Beale is the voice of Napoleon.
Produced by Victoria Ferran and Susan Marling
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (b05xxc02)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (b05xxjgg)
Aliyah
Aliyah
by Becky Prestwich
When her son becomes increasingly obsessed with Judaism and disappears, Rosa, a die-hard atheist is forced to make a journey to Jerusalem. Her elderly father, David travels with her. They eventually make their way to the Meah She'arim district, the largest Haredim community in Israel, an Orthodox enclave, founded in the 19th Century. There is a clash of cultures which brings things to a head in Rosa's own family relationships with her father and her son. An affecting drama about three generations of a family and faith.
Produced and Directed by Pauline Harris.
TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (b05xvz3x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
TUE 15:30 Shared Experience (b05xxjgj)
Series 3
Taken Hostage
Fortunately, most people will not have the experience shared by Fi Glover's guests this week. Peter spent six years working in Georgia. The day before he was due to fly home from the posting, he was kidnapped at gunpoint and held in squalid conditions for six months. Contrast that with another Peter who surfed and drank beer while his ship was held for three months during the blockade of the Suez Canal. Sarah meanwhile was setting out across Kenya to work in an orphanage in neighbouring Tanzania when the bus she was travelling in was held up by bandits and driven off-road into the bush. The interesting thing that emerges from their conversation is that two of them appear to have coped better with their experiences, while one man subsequently struggled.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
TUE 16:00 Law in Action (b05xxjgl)
Spies, Fifa, Fare Dodging
This week more Britons have travelled to Syria to join Islamic State. Joshua Rozenberg talks to David Anderson QC - the Government's Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation - about whether new law could help stop others following them.
In a wide-ranging interview, David Anderson talks about his proposal to give judges, rather than ministers, the power to authorise the interception of communications. And he tells Law in Action what he made of recent reports about the consequences of the Edward Snowden leaks.
Also in the programme: how likely is it that Lord Janner could face prosecution in Scotland, when the Crown Prosecution Service has ruled out a trial in England? With football's governing body Fifa in crisis, we explore the legal implications of trying to strip Russia or Qatar of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. And a cautionary tale about a man who boarded a train without a ticket.
Producers: Joe Kent and Hannah Barnes
Editor: Richard Knight.
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (b05xxjgn)
Helen Baxendale and Helen Cross
Actress Helen Baxendale writer Helen Cross join Harriett Gilbert to recommend favourite books.
This week's selection includes a treatise on re-wilding Britain by George Monbiot ('Feral'), a novel about the culture clash between two women from very different backgrounds, 'The God of Chance' by Kirsten Thorup, and an award-winning memoir, 'The Three of Us' by Julia Blackburn.
Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery.
TUE 17:00 PM (b05xxjgq)
News interviews, context and analysis.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b05xw72d)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Mark Steel's in Town (b05xxkqt)
Series 6
Paisley
"Keep an eye on Paisley..." Benjamin Disraeli
Mark Steel visits the Renfrewshire town of Paisley that's definitely not in Glasgow. The largest town in Scotland, Paisley has a rich history; being at the centre of the weaving industry it gave its name to the famous Paisley pattern, as well as being the site of a landmark legal battle involving a snail in a bottle of ginger beer which led to a change in consumer law. More recently, Paisley elected Mhairi Black, the youngest MP since 1832.
Whilst in town Mark visits a 'Car Park In The Sky', has a wander round a 12th century Abbey with alien gargoyles and ends up having a game of pool with a dog called Murphy.
Mark Steel returns for a sixth 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 performs a bespoke evening of comedy for the local residents.
Written and performed by ... Mark Steel
Additional material by ... Pete Sinclair
Production co-ordinator ... Hayley Sterling
Producer ... Carl Cooper
A BBC Radio Comedy Production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2015.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (b05xxkqw)
Susan's refining her canapes. Ed suggests helpfully that Mike and Vicky might be happy with simpler fare, but Susan wants to make it special.
Busy Tom helps Ed with baling at Grange Farm. They talk cattle and Tony's new bull.
Jill and Chris share sympathy over Ruth's dilemma with care for Heather. Jill thinks Peggy's suggestion that Chris moves in with her is a wonderful idea; it would benefit Peggy too. She recommends Chris goes round to The Lodge to remind herself what a lovely house it is. Chris takes Jill's advice, and after a chat with Peggy is soon persuaded. She'd love to live at The Lodge.
Determined Kenton's pressing on with his fete plans, asking Tom if he can borrow a pig. When Susan challenges Kenton about the planned cancellation, Kenton declares the committee's been overruled. The fete's going ahead. However when Jill gives him the news that Elizabeth's stepped in to offer Lower Loxley, he furious. That can't happen! The pub depends on the extra trade from the fete, and having it outside Ambridge will turn the village into a ghost town. It seems his whole family is out to ruin him. And if the Bull goes up the Suwannee, it'll be all Jill's fault.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (b05xxkqy)
Jordskott; We Want You to Watch; Unfinished Art; Rebecca Dinerstein
Jordskott is the latest TV crime import from Scandinavia, this time from the Swedish state broadcaster SVT and drawing heavily on Norse folklore. Dr Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough, specialist in Nordic culture and history, reviews the programme.
Fusing theatre, dance and music, We Want You to Watch is a new play looking at the effects of internet pornography on our society. Samira Ahmed speaks to Abbi Greenland and Helen Goalen from the theatre company RashDash and director Caroline Steinbeis.
An exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery in London explores the works that artists have left unfinished, from Renaissance paintings to 20th century drawings. Sarah Crompton reflects on the artists who have deliberately chosen not finish their works, and how an artist decides when a work of art is complete.
Rebecca Dinerstein discusses her debut novel The Sunlit Night, a love story set in the Arctic community of Norway, and the year she herself spent there in an artist's colony.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Ellie Bury.
TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b05xxhw4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (b05xxkr0)
Treating Stroke: The Doctors' Dilemma
Later this month the medicines regulator, the MHRA, is due to complete its review into the clot-busting drug Alteplase, the frontline treatment used in many cases of stroke. A number of experts in the UK, US and Canada have raised serious doubts about the drug's safety and effectiveness. They are concerned about potentially fatal harm to patients through an increased risk of bleeding in the brain and they question the credibility of scientific research on which Alteplase was licensed. Supporters and regulators say any risks are outweighed by the benefits of improved recovery. BBC Health Correspondent Adam Brimelow assesses the evidence and the dilemma posed for doctors and their patients.
Producer: Sally Chesworth.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (b05xxkr2)
Wet Macular Disease; PIPs; Backgammon
People with wet macular disease in Shropshire have been facing delays in switching their medication from Lucentis to Eylea we discuss its impact on patients and speak to Cathy Yelf from the Macular Society and Simon Kelly an eye consultant at the Bolton Eye Hospital. We look at listeners feedback on the transfer of disability living allowance to personal independent payments and we speak to Yan Kit Chan one of the world's first blind backgammon tournament players.
Producer: Anna Bailey.
TUE 21:00 Inside Health (b05xxkr4)
Cervical Screening in Older Women; Hepatitis E in Nepal; Enlarged Prostate; Significance
Cervical screening in older women has hit the headlines, but reports have not explained whether these women being diagnosed after 65 have attended screening. Concerns about an outbreak of Hepatitis E in Nepal that could kill pregnant women; A new technique being trialled in the UK to treat enlarged prostate; and Dr Margaret McCartney on statistical significance.
TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (b05xxhvy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 21:58 Weather (b05xw72k)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b05xxl0r)
France v Italy - the migrants stand-off in Ventimiglia.
Talks aimed at reaching migrant burden sharing deal end in Luxembourg without agreement
TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b05z1mb6)
Saint Mazie
Episode 2
More than 90 years after Mazie Phillips - the proprietress of famed New York City movie theatre, the Venice - began her diary, it is discovered by a documentarian in search of a good story.
So who was Mazie Phillips? Diary extracts, interwoven with voices from past and present, paint a picture of her adventurous life - played out during the Jazz Age, when romance and booze were aplenty. But the Great Depression looms.
Episode 2 (of 10)
When Rosie loses another baby, Mazie takes over the ticket booth at the Venice theatre.
Written by Jami Attenberg - author of a story collection, Instant Love, and three novels, The Kept Man, The Melting Season, and The Middlesteins, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. She has also contributed essays and criticism to The New York Times, Real Simple, Elle, The Washington Post, and many other publications. Jami lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Readers:
Mazie Phillips.......Samantha Spiro
Other parts..........Kerry Shale and Teresa Gallagher
Abridged by Jeremy Osborne
Produced by Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 23:00 Kevin Eldon Will See You Now (b01lhgzm)
Series 1
Hooter
Comedy's best kept secret ingredient gets his own sketch show. Sketches, characters, sound effects, bit of music, some messin' about, you know...
In this episode, a fly, a fruit bowl and the Hallelujah Chorus. Obviously. Plus maverick street-artist Banksy's first-ever in-depth interview. Oh, did we mention the fruit bowl? Yep.
Kevin Eldon is a comedy phenomenon. He's been in virtually every major comedy show in the last fifteen years. But not content with working with the likes of Chris Morris, Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci, Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, Stewart Lee, Julia Davis and Graham Linehan, he's finally decided to put together his own comedy series for BBC Radio 4.
After all the waiting - Kevin Eldon Will See You Now...
Appearing in this episode are Amelia Bullmore (I'm Alan Partridge, Scott and Bailey), Julia Davis (Nighty Night), Rosie Cavaliero (Peep Show), Paul Putner (Little Britain), Justin Edwards (The Consultants) and David Reed (The Penny Dreadfuls) with special guest Phil Cornwell as a man shouting "Wisbeach".
Written by Kevin Eldon with additional material by Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris (Flight Of The Conchords, That Mitchell and Webb Sound).
Original music by Martin Bird.
Produced and directed by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (b05xxl0t)
Joanna Shinn reports as the government sees off a Tory rebellion on Europe. Peers ask where's the detail on free child care? And the battle for treatment facing children with the rarest diseases.
Editor: Peter Mulligan.
WEDNESDAY 17 JUNE 2015
WED 00:00 Midnight News (b05xw74k)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b05z2df4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b05xw74r)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b05xw74t)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b05xw74y)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (b05xw750)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b05xxl4f)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (b05xxl4h)
Country-of-Origin Labelling for Dairy Products, Quinoa Farm, Organic Cheese
The cheese we buy is labelled British - but the milk may have come from elsewhere. The farming minister, George Eustice, argues that this should change.
A British dairy cooperative have developed an organic cheddar cheese especially for export to the USA.
Anna Hill visits a quinoa farm in Suffolk.
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03bkg3b)
Short-Eared Owl
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Wildlife Sound Recordist, Chris Watson, presents the Short-eared Owl. Short-eared owls, one of our most spectacular birds of prey, are nomads, roaming over vast areas of open countryside and breeding where they find their favourite habitat of moorland or long grass.
WED 06:00 Today (b05y0k9m)
Morning news and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather, Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Midweek (b05y0k9r)
Alfie Moore, Lucy Saxon, Michael Volpe, Richard Hudson
Alfie Moore is a policeman who is also a stand-up comedian. In his radio series, It's A Fair Cop, he swears his audience in and takes them through a real life scenario to see what sort of officers they'd have made. Alfie began telling jokes about life in the force as a hobby when he was working as a detective for Humberside Police in Scunthorpe. He is currently on sabbatical from the force and is about to embark on a national tour. It's A Fair Cop is broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
Lucy Saxon writes fantasy adventure novels. Her new book, The Almost King, is the first in a series of six novels set in the world of Tellus. Lucy began writing at 12 after she was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis or ME. She found herself missing long periods of school which gave her the opportunity to indulge in creative writing. She wrote her first novel, Take Back The Skies, when she was 16 and signed a publishing deal at 17. The Almost King by Lucy Saxon is published by Bloomsbury.
Michael Volpe is the general manager and founder of Opera Holland Park. His autobiography, Noisy At the Wrong Times (Battles with myself), tells how he was brought up in difficult family circumstances by his Italian mother in London. In the book he acknowledges his youthful misdemeanours and credits Woolverstone Hall - the prestigious state boarding school he attended - with turning his life around. Noisy At the Wrong Times (Battles with myself) by Michael Volpe is published by Troubador Publishing. Flight by Jonathan Dove is at Opera Holland Park, London.
Richard Hudson is an artist and sculptor. His sculptures Adam and Eve are on display for the first time at Masterpiece London - the collecting fair for art, antiques and design - at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. Richard was brought up in a farming family and turned his hand to acting, property development and a stint as a nude muse before finding his vocation as a sculptor in 1995. Masterpiece London at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, London.
Producer: Paula McGinley.
WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b05z2fms)
Walking Away
Episode 3
Not content with walking the Pennine Way as a modern day troubadour (an experience recounted in his bestseller Walking Home), Simon Armitage has followed up that journey with a walk of the same distance but through the very opposite terrain and direction, far from home.
The restless poet swaps the moorland uplands of the north for the coastal fringes of Britain's south west, once again giving readings every night, but this time through Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, taking poetry into distant communities and tourist hot-spots, busking his way from start to finish.
From the surreal pleasuredome of Minehead Butlins to a smoke-filled roundhouse on the Penwith Peninsula, then out to the Isles of Scilly and beyond, Armitage tackles this personal Odyssey with all the poetic reflection and personal wit we've come to expect from one of Britain's best loved and most popular writers.
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b05y0k9t)
Women's World Cup; New Curbs on FGM; Influential Women in the UK Music Industry
Will England get through to the next round of the Women's World Cup? Jacqui Oatley gives her predictions and discusses the state of the women's game. New regulations have been introduced to help fight female genital mutilation in the UK and Nigeria has now banned the practice. We look at these measures and pioneering anti FGM work in Bristol schools - will they work? Adesewa Josh a journalist based in Lagos and Naana Otoo-Oyortey, founded of the anti FGM charity Forward discuss. How are the influential women - in and front of the mic and behind the mixing desk in the UK music industry. And are you dreading a summer of weddings? How to enjoy being a guest without breaking the bank.
WED 10:41 15 Minute Drama (b05y0k9w)
Cyrano de Bergerac
Episode 3
Glyn Maxwell's adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. Swordsman, Philosopher, Poet Raconteur - Cyrano is all of these things , but none of them make him happy. What he wants more than anything is the love of the beautiful Roxane. But he has one huge problem that is as plain as the nose on his face. Is he too ugly to be loved ? Especially when the new handsome cadet Christian de Neuvillette also declares his love for her . However Christian's way with words needs a little help .
CYRANO Tom Burke
ROXANE Emily Pithon
CLOMIRE/DUENNA Verity May Henry
DE GUICHE Conrad Nelson
CHRISTIAN Kieran Hodgson
PRIEST Roger Morlidge
Music by Harry Blake
Directed in Salford by Susan Roberts
WED 10:56 The Listening Project (b05y0m0k)
Richard and Lindsay – Casting Labels Aside
Fi Glover with a conversation between two friends with mild Asperger's Syndrome. Acting has given them confidence and their love of drama has cemented their friendship. Another in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess
WED 11:00 My Big Fat Documentary (b05y0m0m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
13:30 on Sunday]
WED 11:30 Ed Reardon's Week (b05y0m0p)
Series 10
The New Thirty
Ed is facing a milestone in his life as he's about to turn 60. As he reflects on his life he decides that things aren't half bad. He finally has a bed to lay his head on, his cat is in rude health and he is leading a busy and fulfilling literary life. However, as with all things Ed, this state of equanimity can't last and after a curious encounter with Jeremy Paxman Ed decides to make some changes.
Written by Andrew Nickolds and Christopher Douglas
Produced by Dawn Ellis
Ed Reardon's Week is a BBC Radio Comedy production.
WED 12:00 News Summary (b05xw756)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 Home Front (b05y0njq)
17 June 1915 - Alice Macknade
Despite trouble at home, Alice is swept off her feet at work.
Written by Georgia Fitch
Directed by Lucy Collingwood
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
WED 12:15 You and Yours (b05y0njs)
Corporate Rentals, HMRC Delays, Cost of Living
Research shows private renters face the highest housing costs for the poorest quality housing available. Will the big city investment companies moving into the market improve things? Is so-called micro-living really the answer to tenants dissatisfaction with small private landlords. You and Yours reports.
According to new figures hundreds and thousands of us are filling in self assessments every year, despite owning little or no tax. No wonder the tax office has had to waive fines for those who file late. But is HMRC drowning in a sea of paperwork? And why is it sending demands for returns to people who don't need to file one? You and Yours investigates.
WED 12:57 Weather (b05xw758)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 13:00 World at One (b05y0njv)
New figures suggest wages are rising and unemployment falling - we debate the economy with our weekly panel of MPs. We hear from Ireland on attitudes there to a possible 'Brexit'; and the crossword clues that spelt romance.
WED 13:45 Napoleon: The Man and the Myths (b05ys1zq)
Episode 3
Vaulting ambition, a politically calculating marriage, endless battles across Europe, a Russian campaign that cost the lives of half a million French troops - there is much for which history can criticise Napoleon.
But historian Andrew Roberts defends Napoleon against these charges and makes the case for him as a man more sinned against than sinning - though the retreat from Moscow, vividly described, left Napoleon's army in dismal disarray with many men succumbing to deaths from disease and cold and suicide.
As a result, Napoleon was exiled to Elba. Although of course, he would return.
The programme is partly recorded on location in Paris.
Simon Russell Beale is the voice of Napoleon.
Produced by Victoria Ferran and Susan Marling
A Just Radio Production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 14:00 The Archers (b05xxkqw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (b05y0p8v)
Waterloo: The Ball at Brussels
by Mike Walker
With Napoleon escaped from Elba, the Duke of Wellington quickly heads for Brussels. There, Charlotte, Duchess of Richmond, is keen to give a ball. Wellington thinks this will be excellent for morale. No-one has any idea just how soon the fighting will begin..........
Produced and directed by Marion Nancarrow
Two days before the Battle of Waterloo, the Duchess of Richmond decides to give a grand ball. Against all seeming common sense, the Duke of Wellington agrees. Mike Walker's new play, based on historical fact, delves into the hearts and minds of the Ball's participants to give a vivid portrait of those about to embark on one of the most famous battles in history.
Amongst the music, the food and the dancing, laughter and quarrels, the ball's participants speculate on what may happen. As news comes of Napoleon's advance, the attendees debate the consequences - which of course, they cannot know. What seems increasingly likely, since the allied armies are in a very bad tactical position, is that tomorrow evening the ball will be given by Napoleon Bonaparte. It is clear that the future of Europe is going to be decided TOMORROW! Carriages are called, soldiers pore over maps; diplomats and spies mutter in corners; wives and husbands share what might be last moments. As the guests depart the weather turns to rain, the clock strikes and the day of decision is here.....
WED 15:00 Money Box (b05y0p8x)
Money Box Live: Auto-enrolment Workplace Pensions
Need to enrol your nanny, care worker or gardener in a pension scheme? Who's affected and how does it work? Call 03700 100 444 from
1pm to
3.30pm on Wednesday or e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk now.
The law on workplace pensions has changed and from 1 June if you employ at least one person or run a small business employing up to 30 staff, you may have to provide access to a pension scheme and pay into it.
If you want to find out more you can put your questions to the panel on Wednesday.
Which employees are affected? There are rules about age and earnings.
Who pays in to the scheme and how much?
When do you have to act?
If you use a nanny share which of you pays?
How does it work if you use direct payments to pay your carer?
What are your responsibilities as a small employer?
Or perhaps you are an employee and want to know how you can benefit?
Whatever your questions, joining Paul Lewis to talk you through the process will be:
Neil Esslemont from The Pensions Regulator.
Eddy Graham from Carers UK.
Helen Harvey, from Nannytax.
Call 03700 100 444 from
1pm to
3.30pm on Wednesday or e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk now. Standard geographic call charges apply.
WED 15:30 Inside Health (b05xxkr4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b05y0p8z)
The 'Precariat'; Humour in Sociology
The 'Precariat': Laurie Taylor talks to Guy Standing, Professor in Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His highly influential 2011 book introduced the 'Precariat' as an emerging mass class, characterized by inequality and insecurity. Professor Standing argues that that the increasingly global nature of the Precariat is leading to the kind of social unrest which carries grave political risks. Marking the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, he takes his work a stage further, outlining A Precariat Charter which might award greater rights to this new 'class'. They're joined by Dr Lisa Mckenzie, Research Fellow in Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Also, whilst humour and laughter have been studied by social scientists, scholars who use wit, jokes and satire may get marginalised from the academy. Cate Watson, Professor in the School of Education at the University of Stirling, argues against this neglect of humour's potential.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (b05y0p91)
Media mogul Richard Desmond, Chris Evans on his new job presenting Top Gear
Chris Evans will replace Jeremy Clarkson as the new presenter of Top Gear. It ends months of speculation over who would fill Jeremy Clarkson's shoes after he was sacked after a 'fracas' with a producer on location. Chris, who previously insisted he was not interested , has now signed a three year deal. Co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May will not be part of the show. Chris Evans tells Steve Hewlett about how the deal was done, and how he sees the future of Top Gear, plus the Controller of BBC 2 Kim Shillinglaw on why she thinks Chris is the best choice.
Richard Desmond is the owner of the Daily Express, Daily Star and OK! Magazine. Nicknamed "Dirty Des" for the way he battles competitors, last year he sold his Channel 5 TV station to Viacom for £450 million, over four times the price he originally paid for it. In his new autobiography, The Real Deal, he portrays himself as an unhappy Jewish kid from north London who became a billionaire, developing his entrepreneurial spirit at the age of 13 while working in the cloakroom of the local pub. He set up his first magazines - International Musician and Recording World, and Home Organist - in his early 20s, and in 1983, he snapped up the licence to publish Penthouse in the UK. Steve Hewlett talks to him about his rise to media powerhouse; his portfolio, his philosophy and his position in the UK's press and TV landscape.
Producer: Katy Takatsuki.
WED 17:00 PM (b05y0p93)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b05xw75b)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Big Problems with Helen Keen (b05y0qkv)
Series 1
Love
Helen looks at love and the problems of finding the perfect mate.
Including the invention of computer dating; how we might chemically engineer love; how the bicycle revolutionised sex; having a row in Ikea; and a pair of romantic prairie voles.
A comic look at the solutions humanity has devised to deal with the fundamental problems of survival, starring Helen Keen, Susy Kane and Peter Serafinowicz.
Written by Helen Keen and Miriam Underhill,
Producer: Gareth Edwards
A BBC Radio Comedy production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in June 2015.
WED 19:00 The Archers (b05y0qkx)
David arrives home from Prudhoe. He reports that Ruth will be there for some time yet; she doesn't feel she can leave Heather at the moment. Pip fills David in on Kenton's run-in with Jill over the fete. Pip concedes that the current good milk figures are mainly down to her mum and dad's extended grazing programme. David reckons it's also since Pip took over the milking; she has the magic touch.
Jennifer's relieved Christine's moving in with Peggy; it's a weight off her mind knowing Peggy won't be alone.
Kate's given up her uni course. She's had a run-in with her tutor, but feels she can't tell Brian without Jennifer being there. She attempts to get Lilian to break the news for her, but Lilian advises it will be better if Kate does it herself. When Kate does finally break the news, Brian can't believe it. He despairs of her, tearing her off a strip and touching a raw nerve when he mentions Phoebe. Kate cries. To her horror, Jennifer defends Brian's stance. She needs to start behaving like an adult. Kate storms out. Jennifer confides to Lilian this might be the final straw for Brian. Their other children are all so level-headed. Where did they go wrong with Kate?
WED 19:15 Front Row (b05y0qkz)
Bend It Like Beckham, Terry Frost, Jim Crace
John Wilson talks to Gurinder Chadha about the West End musical of her hit film Bend it Like Beckham, along with lyricist Charles Hart and composer Howard Goodall.
Jim Crace talks about his book Harvest, announced as the winner of the prestigious International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award.
Terry Frost, who was one of the nation's leading abstract painters famous for his use of colour, is the subject of a new exhibition at Leeds Arts Gallery. Andrea Rose reviews.
And Sir Roy Strong, former director of the National Portrait Gallery, celebrates his 80th birthday by posing as historical characters such as Henry VIII and Lincoln, for photographs taken by John Swannell.
WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b05y0k9w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:41 today]
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (b05y0ql1)
Victim Culture
The philosopher Bertrand Russell identified the seductive lure of victimhood nearly 80 years ago in his essay "The Superior Virtue of the Oppressed". Rachel Dolezal is the latest example of today's powerful incentive for individuals to present themselves as victims. She posed as an African-American and victim of racism; even became the president of the Washington branch of The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People. Rather inconveniently it turned out she's 100% white. Perhaps we shouldn't be too hard on her. You could argue that she's a genuine victim of not just modern culture, but government policy on both sides of the Atlantic. A study by a British criminologist claims recognised victim groups that receive legal protection now make up 73% of the population. Groups that have been politically and legally recognised as victims are often keen to use their power, especially via social media, to silence those who offend or upset them as Nobel Prize winning scientist Sir Tim Hunt discovered to his cost. Irony is no defence against a Twitter storm over sexism. He's just the latest victim to stumble unwittingly in to a minefield of emotional, racial, sexual, and psychological grievance. Recognising and protecting victims is clearly a moral good. Would anyone really argue that our society was a better place when casual racism and sexism were the norm? But is the growing list of victims and offence and harms doing lasting harm to our liberal culture? Not making us more civilised, but fuelling division and resentment, making it harder to identify and help true victims? Or are these the same kind of arguments that we've heard throughout history as the powerful try to crush the weak? Trigger alert! The morality of victimhood, the Moral Maze.
WED 20:45 Four Thought (b05y0ql3)
Amanda Palmer
In the third of four editions from this year's Hay Festival a pregnant Amanda Palmer talks about the prospect of reconciling art and motherhood.
"And right now, at 24 weeks pregnant, all I can do is look at the female heroes who've preceded me and not descended into crappy boringness, and pray to the holy trinity: Patti Smith. Ani Difranco. Bjork. Hear my prayer: may I not get baby brain."
Producer: Lucy Proctor.
Image courtesy of Shervin Lainez.
WED 21:00 Science Stories (b05y0ql5)
Series 1
The engine that ran out of steam
The engine that nearly ran out of steam.
Naomi Alderman tells the story of James Watt and the steam engine that nearly never got made. A breath of steam hits cold metal. It cools suddenly and becomes a drop of water. There's an idea. But the designs for Watt’s radically more efficient steam engine lay on the shelf in his workshop for years. Watt, a depressive, cautious perfectionist, had no interest in actually making engines. Had it not been for his friend the businessmen Matthew Boulton driving him on, his engine might never have left the drawing board. Naomi talks to historian Jenny Uglow about the five friends who kickstarted the Industrial Revolution, and, in this era of patent trolls, to digital guru Bill Thompson about the scientific legacy of Watt’s obsession with getting a patent - an obsession which led to an Act of Parliament.
Producer: Anna Buckley
WED 21:30 Midweek (b05y0k9r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b05y0ql7)
One of three sisters from Bradford -- who've gone missing with their children -- has made contact, may be in Syria.
The Dawood sisters and their nine children -- the youngest just three years old -- went to Saudi Arabia in May.
WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b05z2fmv)
Saint Mazie
Episode 3
More than 90 years after Mazie Phillips - the proprietress of famed New York City movie theatre, the Venice - began her diary, it is discovered by a documentarian in search of a good story.
So who was Mazie Phillips? Diary extracts, interwoven with voices from past and present, paint a picture of her adventurous life - played out during the Jazz Age, when romance and booze were aplenty. But the Great Depression looms.
Episode 3 (of 10)
Nance's kids are starving. But when Mazie and new friend, Sister Tee, try to help there are tragic consequences.
Written by Jami Attenberg - author of a story collection, Instant Love, and three novels, The Kept Man, The Melting Season, and The Middlesteins, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. She has also contributed essays and criticism to The New York Times, Real Simple, Elle, The Washington Post, and many other publications. Jami lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Readers:
Mazie Phillips.......Samantha Spiro
Other parts..........Kerry Shale and Teresa Gallagher
Abridged by Jeremy Osborne
Produced by Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 23:00 Bunk Bed (b05zl1bn)
Series 2
Episode 1
Two men in darkness, sharing a bunk bed and a stream of semi-consciousness about family, relationships, work and imagined life.
We all crave a place where our mind and body are not applied to a particular task. The nearest faraway place from daily life. Somewhere for drifting and lighting upon strange thoughts which don't have to be shooed into context, but which can be followed like balloons escaping onto the air. Late at night, in the dark and in a bunk bed, the restless mind can wander.
After an acclaimed reception by The Independent, The Sunday Telegraph, The Observer and Radio 4 listeners, Bunk Bed returns with its late night stream of semi-concsciousness.
In this episode, under cover of darkness, the bedfellows discuss the first time they kissed a girl as youths, and older men they would consder leaving their families for - if only theoretically.
Elsewhere in the series, Patrick and Peter deal with therapy, Chas and Dave, children's happiness, JRR Tolkien, Babycham, Aldous Huxley and correction fluid - among a ragbag of subjects.
Written and performed by Patrick Marber and Peter Curran
Producer: Peter Curran
A Foghorn production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:15 Before They Were Famous (b05y0qlc)
Series 3
Episode 5
Ian Leslie presents the show which brings to light the often surprising first literary attempts of the world's best known writers.
The episode begins with Jane Austen's first employ as a bailiff's clerk penning exceptionally sweet letters to unfortunately late paying debtors.
To follow, we hear Edward Lear's indecipherable missives on behalf of the British Intelligence services and a Radio 4 stalwart, the Shipping Forecast, is re-imagined in a submission found in the archives from a young Martin Amis suggesting how to update the format.
To end, there's another of Henrik Ibsen's unexpected offerings of jokes for a Christmas cracker company.
Producer: Claire Broughton
A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (b05y0qlf)
It was Deputies Day at Westminster with George Osborne and Hilary Benn standing in as party leaders at prime minister's Questions. Susan Hulme followed the exchanges.
Also on the programme:
* Are young people being taught the right skills to prepare them for the world of work?
* The arguments over re-classifying cannabis are thrashed out by members of the Lords.
* An MP claims safety standards inside England's jails are at risk because of spending cuts and reductions in prison staff.
THURSDAY 18 JUNE 2015
THU 00:00 Midnight News (b05xw765)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b05z2fms)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b05xw769)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b05xw76c)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b05xw76f)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (b05xw76k)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b05y0r1h)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (b05y0r1k)
Beavers in Scotland, Dairy investment, Pink farm bales
Farmers are resisting calls for beavers to be more widely re-introduced across Scotland. More than twenty conservation bodies have written to the Scottish Government calling for re-introduction following two trials. Beavers hadn't been seen in Scotland for 400 years, until they were re-introduced in Mid Argyll and Tayside five years ago. Charlotte Smith talks to a farmer on the east coast, who warns of serious problems with flooding if beavers are allowed to roam free across agricultural land.
Low milk prices have meant that many producers with a long history of milking cows have decided to call it a day, and markets have witnessed a steady stream of herd sales. Hear from one farmer who's bucking the trend, and has had the confidence to invest millions in his dairy enterprise.
And why are some bales of silage wrapped in pink this year? Charlotte finds out.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Emma Campbell.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03bkgqv)
Carrion Crow
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Wildlife Sound Recordist, Chris Watson, presents the Carrion Crow. The crow is defined in Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language as "a large black bird that feeds upon the carcasses of beasts." Crows have always suggested an element of foreboding. They are arch-scavengers and black mobs of them crowd our rubbish tips but they're also birds we admire for their intelligence and adaptability.
THU 06:00 Today (b05y11v6)
Morning news and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather, Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (b05y11v8)
Jane Eyre
The story of Jane Eyre is one of the best-known in English fiction. Jane is the orphan who survives a miserable early life, first with her aunt at Gateshead Hall and then at Lowood School. She leaves the school for Thornfield Hall, to become governess to the French ward of Mr Rochester. She and Rochester fall in love but, at their wedding, it is revealed he is married already and his wife, insane, is kept in Thornfield's attic. When Jane Eyre was published in 1847, it was a great success and brought fame to Charlotte Bronte. Combined with Gothic mystery and horror, the book explores many themes, including the treatment of children, relations between men and women, religious faith and hypocrisy, individuality, morality, equality and the nature of true love.
With
Dinah Birch
Professor of English Literature and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Liverpool
Karen O'Brien
Vice Principal and Professor of English Literature at King's College London
And
Sara Lyons
Lecturer in Victorian Literature at the University of Kent
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b05z2kjx)
Walking Away
Episode 4
Not content with walking the Pennine Way as a modern day troubadour (an experience recounted in his bestseller Walking Home), Simon Armitage has followed up that journey with a walk of the same distance but through the very opposite terrain and direction, far from home.
The restless poet swaps the moorland uplands of the north for the coastal fringes of Britain's south west, once again giving readings every night, but this time through Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, taking poetry into distant communities and tourist hot-spots, busking his way from start to finish.
From the surreal pleasuredome of Minehead Butlins to a smoke-filled roundhouse on the Penwith Peninsula, then out to the Isles of Scilly and beyond, Armitage tackles this personal Odyssey with all the poetic reflection and personal wit we've come to expect from one of Britain's best loved and most popular writers.
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b05y11vb)
Sylvia Pankhurst and Working Women Today
Over 100 years after Sylvia Pankhurst interviewed working women about their lives and their double shifts of work and family. Emma Barnett speaks to women in the same industries now. In the first of a new series she speaks to women in a pottery factory, and is joined by professor Krista Cowman of Lincoln University to discuss Pankhurst and her writings on working women.
The case of Rachel Dolezal has caused a huge race row in the US. Dolezal, a civil rights activist, was born to two white parents, but has been presenting herself as black - or "identifying" as black, as she describes it. It has created discussion about how race forms identity, and some seem to have conflated the issue of adopting a different race with the experience of being transgender. Emma Barnett is joined by guests in the studio to discuss gender, race, and identity.
Plus, Ambreen Shah of the Big Lottery Fund on their plans to channel money into projects to help women and girls affected by domestic violence, sexual exploitation, homelessness, substance abuse, and mental ill health.
THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b05y11vd)
Cyrano de Bergerac
Episode 4
Glyn Maxwell's adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. Swordsman, Philosopher, Poet Raconteur - Cyrano is all of these things , but none of them make him happy. What he wants more than anything is the love of the beautiful Roxane. But he has one huge problem that is as plain as the nose on his face. Is he too ugly to be loved ? Especially when the handsome young cadet Christian de Neuvillette also declares his love for her . However Christian's way with words needs a little help . Cyrano has been helping him sharpen his poetic skills but will this deception be discovered ?
CYRANO Tom Burke
ROXANE Emily Pithon
SGT CARBONNE ..Jonathan Keeble
LE BRET Christopher Harper
DE GUICHE Conrad Nelson
CHRISTIAN Kieran Hodgson
RAGUENEAU Roger Morlidge
Music Harry Blake
Directed in Salford by Susan Roberts
THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (b05y11vg)
Greece on the Brink
Insight, context and colour. Today, the barbs fly as Greece seems to be stumbling towards default; ambitious plans for a new trans-continental railway in South America -- but who stands to benefit and who will lose out? The migrants living on boulders that line Italy's shoreline just along the coast from the glittering French Riviera; dissatisfaction among Estonia's Russian minority as relations between Russia and the West become colder and our correspondent makes a discovery in war-ravaged Gaza City -- the very best ice cream he's ever tasted!
THU 11:30 Mrs Thatcher and the Writers (b05y11vj)
At the height of her Premiership Margaret Thatcher attended a series of small, discrete dinners with leading writers of the period including Philip Larkin, Anthony Powell, Max Egremont and V.S Naipaul. DJ Taylor hears from some of those who took tea with Mrs T and asks why writers of the right and left were, and still are, mesmerised by her. Revealing letters and diaries give a sense of the dinners as thy unfolded and three of Britain's leading novelists, Hilary Mantel, Alan Hollinghurst and Ian McEwan - all winners of the Booker Prize - have since written novels or short stories that include a fictionalised Margaret Thatcher. In Hilary Mantel's case twice. So why does the former Prime Minister continue to fascinate, and will any writer take on the challenge of putting her centre stage, instead, as she has been until now, on the periphery?
Producer: Nicola Swords
Contributors: Hilary Mantel, Alan Holinghurst, Ian McEwan, Charles Moore, Max Egremont and Bella Thomas.
THU 12:00 News Summary (b05xw76q)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 Home Front (b05y11vl)
18 June 1915 - Beau Tilley
Folkestone is in need of some Canadian diplomacy.
Written by Georgia Fitch
Directed by Lucy Collingwood
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
THU 12:15 You and Yours (b05y11vn)
Villa Fraud, Tattoo Cover-ups, Metal-on-Metal Hips
Trip Advisor is being urged to increase warnings about fraud, after people using the listing website to book villas in Italy discovered their bookings are not real and their money has been stolen. Shari Vahl investigates.
Covering up the old with the new. Winifred Robinson speaks to 'tattoo fixer' Jay Hutton about how that old faded dolphin on your back can be given a new life.
Plus the hundreds of people taking action against the manufacturers of metal-on-metal hip implants, which left them with long term health problems.
Presented by Winifred Robinson
Produced by Natalie Donovan.
THU 12:57 Weather (b05xw76t)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 13:00 World at One (b05y11vq)
Police in the US City of Charleston are hunting a white gunman who shot and killed nine worshippers in an historic African American church. We discuss racial hate crime in America.
A new report says that unless significant restoration and conservation work is undertaken to the Palace of Westminster major irreversible damage may be done. We debate if our politicians should abandon their historic building.
Also the government's newly appointed anti corruption tsar, Sir Eric Pickles, on electoral fraud.
THU 13:45 Napoleon: The Man and the Myths (b05ys2n2)
Episode 4
The battle of Waterloo changed the future of Europe and sealed Napoleon's fate. But why did such a successful and experienced commander as Napoleon lose that battle, 200 years ago today?
Historian Andrew Roberts describes Napoleon's uncharacteristic catalogue of errors, the poor communications on the battlefield and the Emperor's miscalculation about the vital part that would be played by the Prussians, fighting on the Allied side.
Simon Russell Beale is the voice of Napoleon.
Produced by Victoria Ferran and Susan Marling
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 14:00 The Archers (b05y0qkx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (b05y11vs)
The Len Continuum
The debut for radio by the critically acclaimed British filmmaker Peter Strickland, writer and director of films Berberian Sound Studio and The Duke of Burgundy.
Sometime in the early eighties, struggling actor Len is increasingly overshadowed by his wife Alice's successful career in local radio. As his bitterness grows, he comes by a chance to finally prove himself.
Surreal soundscapes and black humour with Toby Jones and Belinda Stewart-Wilson.
Sound engineer: Eloise Whitmore
Written and Directed by Peter Strickland
Produced by Russell Finch and Polly Thomas
A Somethin' Else production for Radio 4.
THU 15:00 Ramblings (b05y11vv)
Series 30
Edge Hill
Clare Balding revisits the English Civil War by walking round Edge hill in the company of a group of fathers who've been walking together for twenty years.
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b05xwbbz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (b05xwdmd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b05y11vx)
Little Shop Of Horrors live; Virtual Reality; Toronto comes to London
With Francine Stock.
Live Live Cinema perform The Little Shop Of Horrors in studio. The four band members play various instruments and all the characters as well as performing the sound effects and lip-synching to the dialogue on screen. They show Francine how it's done.
Virtual Reality could well be the future of documentaries, according to film-makers Richard Nockles and Gabo Arora. Francine dons a headset and takes a virtual tour of London by crane.
The road to the Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire and The King's Speech began at the Toronto Film Festival, which is becoming increasingly important for British film-makers with their eyes on the prize. Cameron Bailey and Piers Handling are in London this week from Toronto to watch 65 films all vying to get into the festival. Only 8 will make it. They take Francine through the decision-making process.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b05y11vz)
Women Scientists on Sexism in Science
Inside Science this week is devoted to the subject of sexism in science, following the comments from Tim Hunt about women in laboratories.
Adam Rutherford is joined by five female researchers at differing stages of their scientific career to explore whether the culture of science - from school, through university and into the lab - is rigged against women getting grants, staying in the world of research and getting promotion. Do the pressures on scientists to publish many papers militate against women getting to the top of the profession? is there unconscious bias against women making it in science?
THU 17:00 PM (b05y11w1)
News interviews, context and analysis.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b05xw771)
18/6/2015
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 It's a Fair Cop (b05y11w3)
Series 2
Reporting Crime
Policeman turned comic, Alfie Moore asks whether we think ALL crime should be reported and investigated.
You may be surprised at the result....
The return of Alfie Moore's series in which his audience makes the policing decisions as he takes them through a real life crime scenario.
Written and performed by Alfie Moore.
Script Editor: Will Ing
Producer: Alison Vernon-Smith
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2015.
THU 19:00 The Archers (b05y11w5)
Brenda's back for Mike and Vicky's farewell party. Neil and Tom update her on village life since she left. Things are a little awkward with Tom as they discuss Kirsty, but they find common ground over Tom's recent kindness to Roy. Tom knows how Roy feels; he's messed up a good relationship himself more than once.
Finding Mike and Vicky up to their ears in boxes and tissue paper, Roy offers Phoebe's babysitting services for the evening. Mike assures him they're sorted; Beth can go in with Keira at Ambridge View. Besides surely Phoebe will want to be at the party? Roy remarks drily that Phoebe's a bit off parties at the moment.
As the tasteful music begins and the cocktails flow at Ambridge View, Vicky's getting teary. How she'll miss the cows and the country pursuits! Being a visitor just won't be the same, she sniffs. But motherhood changes everything, and it's time to move on.
Brenda locates absent Roy, who's sitting quietly in the kitchen. He shares his thoughts on Hayley, Phoebe and the life he threw away. And now his dad's going, he'll be completely alone.
Back in the room Neil delivers a heartfelt speech about his good friend, and glasses are raised in a toast: Mike and Vicky!
THU 19:15 Front Row (b05y11w7)
Black Work, Robert Wilson, Mayas Exhibition, Manda Scott
Black Work is ITV's new crime drama and stars Sheridan Smith as a female PC whose detective husband is murdered. Crime writer Denise Mina reviews.
Samira talks to the veteran avant-garde director and visual artist Robert Wilson who is bringing his highly stylized production of 'Krapp's Last Tape' to the Barbican's International Beckett Season. Wilson not only directs and designs, he plays Krapp, too, in a solo tour-de-force performance.
Mayas: Revelation of an Endless Time is a new exhibition at Liverpool's World Museum which explores the 2500 years of Maya history through 385 objects. It's part of the cultural calendar to mark 2015's Dual Year of Mexico in the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom in Mexico. Dr Amy Fuller, a lecturer in the History of the Americas reviews.
Manda Scott's latest novel, Into The Fire, is set in 15th century and 21st century France and has Joan of Arc at its heart. Manda discusses her fascination with her heroine, and how she was so much more than a standard bearing peasant girl.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Rebecca Armstrong.
THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b05y11vd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 Law in Action (b05xxjgl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Tuesday]
THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (b05zyyhx)
Outsourcing
Outsourcing has had a bad press over the years: What with taxpayers being charged for tagging offenders who were dead, the fiasco over security at the London Olympics and the earlier trend for companies to shift operations to call centres in India. Evan Davis and guests look beyond the negative headlines to examine the pros and cons of getting an outside supplier to do some of your work. And they'll find out how outsourcing has enabled the creators of a chilli sauce to expand from the garden shed to the shelves of hundreds of stores.
Guests:
Rupert Soames, CEO, Serco
Paul Blantern, CEO, Northampstonshire County Council
Kuldip Singh Sehota, CEO Mr Singh's Sauce
Producer: Sally Abrahams.
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b05y11vz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (b05y11v8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b05y13tv)
War ripping people from their homes at greater rate than at any time since the end of WW2
According to new UN figures, nearly sixty million people were displaced by conflict last year.
THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b05z2kjz)
Saint Mazie
Episode 4
More than 90 years after Mazie Phillips - the proprietress of famed New York City movie theatre, the Venice - began her diary, it is discovered by a documentarian in search of a good story.
So who was Mazie Phillips? Diary extracts, interwoven with voices from past and present, paint a picture of her adventurous life - played out during the Jazz Age, when romance and booze were aplenty. But the Great Depression looms.
Episode 4 (of 10)
Mazie's life is changed forever when she meets the Captain.
Written by Jami Attenberg - author of a story collection, Instant Love, and three novels, The Kept Man, The Melting Season, and The Middlesteins, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. She has also contributed essays and criticism to The New York Times, Real Simple, Elle, The Washington Post, and many other publications. Jami lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Reader: Samantha Spiro
Abridged by Jeremy Osborne
Produced by Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 23:00 Seekers (b05y13tx)
Series 2
I Kissed A Bear, and I Liked It
Stuart needs to bond with Vanessa's parents, and Joe and Terry raise an egg.
Matthew Horne, Daniel Mays, Tony Way and Zahra Ahmadi star in Steve Burge's sitcom set in a jobcentre
Stuart ------ Matthew Horne
Joseph ------ Daniel Mays
Terry ----- Tony Way
Nicola ------ Zahra Ahmadi
Vanessa ----- Natalie Walter
Gary Probert ----- Steve Oram
Producer: Victoria Lloyd
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2015.
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (b05y13tz)
Sean Curran and the BBC's parliamentary team report on the divisions among MPs over whether or not 16 and 17-year-olds should be allowed to vote in the EU referendum and the concerns, voiced in the Lords, over changes to pensions.
Also on the programme: MPs call for action to tackle air pollution, the "silent killer". There are worries over the cost and the time it could take to renovate the Palace of Westminster. And the new chairs of the Commons influential select committees are named.
FRIDAY 19 JUNE 2015
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b05xw79k)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b05z2kjx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b05xw79m)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b05xw79p)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b05xw79t)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b05xw79w)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b05y13yd)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b05y13yg)
Wind farm subsidies, Europe, Elderflowers, Elton John
The EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan talks to Nancy Nicholson and says that British farmers will lose out from an EU exit. He also says that the EU is pushing for more emerging markets to mitigate against the impact of the Russian import ban.
The Department for Energy and Climate change has announced that it will stop subsidies for large scale wind farms. Renewable energy expert Charles Cowap says that farmers need to be wary as renewable energy can be a riskier investment than anticipated.
The elderflower harvest is underway. With the flower only lasting for a couple of weeks, theres a short window of opportunity to produce elderflower drinks. BBC Gloucestershire's Emily Slater visits one manufacturer to follow the journey of an elderflower from field to bottle.
How did the Westmorland Agricultural Society convince Elton John to play at their annual show? Caz Graham talks to the organisers to find out
Presenter Caz Graham. Producer Ruth Sanderson.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03bkh4k)
Goldcrest
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Wildlife Sound Recordist, Chris Watson, presents the Goldcrest. Goldcrests are, by a whisker, our smallest bird - roughly nine centimetres long and the weight of a ten pence coin. They migrate in October and November from Continental Europe and some people used to believe that because they arrived around the same time as wintering woodcock they'd travelled on the waders' backs and the tiny goldcrest became known as the 'woodcock pilot'.
FRI 06:00 Today (b05y16mn)
Morning news and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather, Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b05xwbv7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b05z2mbx)
Walking Away
Episode 5
Not content with walking the Pennine Way as a modern day troubadour (an experience recounted in his bestseller Walking Home), Simon Armitage has followed up that journey with a walk of the same distance but through the very opposite terrain and direction, far from home.
The restless poet swaps the moorland uplands of the north for the coastal fringes of Britain's south west, once again giving readings every night, but this time through Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, taking poetry into distant communities and tourist hot-spots, busking his way from start to finish.
From the surreal pleasuredome of Minehead Butlins to a smoke-filled roundhouse on the Penwith Peninsula, then out to the Isles of Scilly and beyond, Armitage tackles this personal Odyssey with all the poetic reflection and personal wit we've come to expect from one of Britain's best loved and most popular writers.
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b05y16mq)
Women's Tour, Kamila Shamsie, Shivi Ramoutar
We hear from the Women's Tour about the cyclists to watch and how they're doing.
Life in the lab and beyond. What does the working life of a scientist look like?
Kamila Shamsie says it's time publishers concentrated on publishing books written by women - we discuss her challenge.
We hear from Mahya, a 21 year old Iranian lesbian who is seeking asylum.
And, Shivi Ramoutar cooks the perfect salt fish butties
Presenter: Emma Barnett
Producer: Ruth Watts.
FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b05y16ms)
Cyrano de Bergerac
Episode 5
The final part of Glyn Maxwell's adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. Swordsman, Philosopher, Poet Raconteur - Cyrano is all of these things , but none of them make him happy. What he wants more than anything is the love of the beautiful Roxane. But he has one huge problem that is as plain as the nose on his face. Is he too ugly to be loved ? Especially when the new handsome cadet Christian de Neuvillette also declares his love for her . However Christian's way with words needs a little help . Cyrano has been helping him. But after many years and a siege in between is the scheme about to unravel ?
CYRANO Tom Burke
ROXANE/MOTHER SUPERIOR Emily Pithon
SGT CARBONNE ..Jonathan Keeble
LE BRET Christopher Harper
DE GUICHE Conrad Nelson
CHRISTIAN Kieran Hodgson
RAGUENEAU Roger Morlidge
Music Harry Blake
Directed in Salford by Susan Roberts
FRI 11:00 From the Cockpit to the Operating Theatre (b05y16mv)
The human brain is fallible. In emergency situations it can be easily overloaded with information or be unable to override social rules of hierarchy and deference. This can have disastrous consequences, particularly in scenarios like aeroplane failures or surgical emergencies. On March 27, 1977 one of the deadliest ever air crashes happened in Tenerife, killing 583 people. There was nothing technically wrong with either plane involved in the collision. The overriding factor was found to be the authority gradient in the cockpit of 1 plane with the high status captain overruling the co pilot who thought they weren't cleared for take off. This was a game changing event for the airline industry. Claudia Hammond investigates how years of research in aviation psychology have made events like that a rarity and have given rise to huge improvements in understanding human behaviour and how mistakes are made so deathly disasters can be prevented. The world of aviation has embraced a so called 'just culture' where reporting errors and near misses are encouraged to prevent a similar mistake turning into a disaster in the future. But what has medicine learned from aviation psychology and how close is it to a similar just culture? Surgical check lists have been introduced to try and prevent errors like operating on the wrong limb and making sure teams communicate with one another. But how effective are they and could surgery learn more from aviation about the psychology of safety and being open about errors to prevent them in the future?
FRI 11:30 Gloomsbury (b05y16mx)
Series 3
Women in Love and Men in Disgrace
Ginny Fox has planned a trip with Vera Sackcloth-Vest to see her sister, Nesta Bell, at Charlatan House in Sussex, so that Nesta can paint Vera's portrait.
Lionel disapproves of the Bohemian lifestyle of Nesta and her husband Cliff and goes off to spend the weekend with Henry at Sizzlinghurst. Cliff is a rogue who spends half of his time away from the house living with his lover, Mrs Hutchinson. Nesta only tolerates Cliff's dalliance because there's another man living at Charlatan with whom she's really in love - Duncan Grunt. Unfortunately for Nesta, Duncan only has eyes for his homosexual lover, who also lives in the house, and whose name is Flopsy. And to top it all, Nesta's two children run up and down the garden without any clothes on.
When Ginny and Vera turn up at Charlatan House, Nesta makes an improper suggestion when she asks if she can paint Vera in the nude. Vera is shocked and wants to leave. Unable to share Vera with her sister, Ginny storms out too, and she and Vera return to Sizzlinghurst, where their mood is not lightened by the discovery of Henry and Lionel wrestling naked in front of the library fire as research for DH Lollipop's new book.
Produced by Jamie Rix
A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:00 News Summary (b05xw7b2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Home Front (b05y178f)
19 June 1915 - Kitty Lumley
Sergeant Harris has awkward news to break to the Wilsons.
Written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz & Georgia Fitch
Directed by Lucy Collingwood
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
FRI 12:15 You and Yours (b05y178h)
Care Quality Commission Interview
There are around 18,000 care homes in England and today many of them will be celebrating Care Home Open Day. It's all about recognising care at its best but with almost 40 per cent of homes failing new tougher inspections - how much is there really to celebrate? Andrea Sutcliffe, Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, Care Quality Commission (CQC) says things are improving slowly.
What is it really like to cope with the current cost of living? We're told that things are on the up, the economy is getting better, oil prices are down and that's having an impact on the cost of food. But some people are still struggling to feel the benefit.
In January Samantha Fenwick visited one family from Oxford whose priorities had to change because their income didn't match their growing outgoings - six months later she's been back to see if their fortunes have changed.
You & Yours listener John Grant discovered his dying mother was paying nearly £1000 a month to the company, but his bank wouldn't stop the payments because it wasn't on their list of scam companies. European Lottery Guild have a flash website and operates lotteries in Spain, Australia and Ireland. But the Australian and US government have warned their consumers that the website is phony and operating illegally.
In February our listener Catherine Nendick came on the programme to tell us she couldn't make sense of her Npower bill. She's been trying to switch since November 2014 and cancelled her Direct Debit, but Npower keep sending her final bills of various amounts. Catherine's recently received five bills in a week. As well as writing off a year's worth of charges, and sending lots of bills, Npower also restarted her Direct Debit payments without her permission - which as you've guessed it have made her bills even more confusing.
The European Commission has opened a formal investigation into how Amazon distributes ebooks. The investigation will focus on two clauses in Amazon's contracts that require publishers to tell the distribution giant when they offer cheaper deals or alternative terms to Amazon's competitors. Those investigating Amazon say that these agreements with publishers could make it more difficult for other e-book distributors to compete.
Many of us put our trust in online reviews or blogs. They can help us decide if a business is worth its salt. But what if that glowing review was only posted online because the company it endorsed had paid for it to be there? The Competition and Markets Authority is now investigating companies which it thinks may have paid for products to be promoted but without making that clear to the public. Jon Douglas reports.
And the Cornish beer not brewed in Cornwall but made nearly 300 miles away in the Midlands. Despite its Cornish branding, bottles of Sharp's Doom Bar have been made in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, for the last two years. Only the cask version of the popular ale, which takes its name from the treacherous sandbank at the mouth of the Camel Estuary, is made at the mainbrewery site in Rock, near Wadebridge, Cornwall. We'll hear why some people are up in arms.
FRI 12:57 Weather (b05xw7b6)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 13:00 World at One (b05y178k)
As David Cameron calls on British Muslims to silence any tacit support the Islamic State agenda, one community leader who's said to have the Prime Minister's ear tells us it is time to hear more vocal condemnation. But others say this will merely fuel alienation. The Labour MP, Yasmin Qureshi, says Muslims are tired of being branded extremists. And Alan Johnson explains why he's re-entering the fray of British politics as leader of Labour's campaign to remain in the EU.
FRI 13:45 Napoleon: The Man and the Myths (b05ys326)
Episode 5
What does history make of Napoleon? Exiled to St Helena, where it was hoped by the British that he would be forgotten, he in fact remained - and remains - a figure of fascination.
For Europeans, he is still the author of civil reforms that underpin laws today. In France, his schools, architecture and infrastructure are a constant reminder of his rule.
Opinion is of course divided. Those on the right in France tend to admire Napoleon as a strong Enlightenment leader; those on the left stress his warlike and tyrannical side.
In this programme, historian Andrew Roberts allows listeners to make up their own minds.
The programmes are partly recorded on location in Paris.
Simon Russell Beale is the voice of Napoleon.
Produced by Victoria Ferran and Susan Marling
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (b05y11w5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (b01p0sb7)
Two Minutes Hate
By Kieran Prendiville
"The horrible thing about the two minutes hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but, on the contrary, that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretence was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledgehammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic" George Orwell, 1984
It isn't just the rich and famous who get super-injunctions. A small number of people in Britain, mostly on legal aid, have much more to lose from tabloid exposure than an expensive divorce.
This drama imagines what it is like to be the most hated woman in Britain - fearing the mob and the forces that will lead them to you. Two Minutes Hate explores the fault line between the public interest and the interest of the public.
The protagonist is a young woman whose partner murdered a child. She didn't believe he could do such a thing, which is why she gave him an alibi.
She is of course inspired by the real life Maxine Carr, girlfriend of Ian Huntley, the Soham murderer. As one broadsheet observed: "It is - and will remain - Carr's particular bad luck to have come to public attention at roughly the same time as Myra Hindley died: there was a gaping Hindley-shaped hole in the tabloids Two Minutes' hate slot, and they have simply used her to plug it".
Produced and Directed by Clive Brill
A Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b05y178n)
Whitby
Peter Gibbs and the panel are in Whitby, North Yorkshire. Christine Walkden, Bob Flowerdew, and Matt Biggs answer audience questions.
Produced by Howard Shannon
Assistant Producer: Hannah Newton
A Somethin' Else Production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:45 Shorts (b05xqbmg)
Welcome to Your Holiday!
Enzo by Tod Wodicka
Three specially commissioned stories in which writers from around the world explore the idea of getting away from it all.
The impulse to flee the everyday grind and seek rest and relief in a change of scene is known as a need for a holiday – but what are the real reasons for becoming a tourist ? Perhaps it is all about travelling hopefully.
In Enzo by Tod Wodicka, a couple in their 30s attempt to revisit the carefree holidays of their formerly hip and trendy past, the era before marriage and before parenthood.
Tod Wodicka is based in Berlin.
Reader: Teresa Gallagher
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 16:00 Last Word (b05y178s)
Morris Beckman, Ornette Coleman, Tanith Lee, Süleyman Demirel and Doris Hart
Matthew Bannister on
Morris Beckman - the East End Jewish activist who co-founded the 43 Group to fight against post-war British fascists.
Ornette Coleman - the pioneering saxophonist who developed free jazz improvisation.
Tanith Lee - the prolific science fiction author who also wrote episodes of the TV series Blake's 7.
Süleyman Demirel - who was seven times Prime Minister and then President of Turkey.
And the American tennis player Doris Hart - who won three Wimbledon titles in one day.
FRI 16:30 Feedback (b05y178v)
Radio 4's forum for listener comment.
FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (b05y178x)
Lynne and Queenie - Sea Life
Fi Glover introduces a conversation between wild swimmers who prefer not to look too closely at what may be swimming with them. Another in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess.
FRI 17:00 PM (b05y178z)
News interviews, context and analysis.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b05xw7bb)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (b05y18pq)
Series 87
Episode 6
A satirical review of the week's news, chaired by Sandi Toksvig, with regular panellist Jeremy Hardy and guests Miles Jupp, Susan Calman and Helen Zaltzman.
Produced by Lyndsay Fenner.
A BBC Radio Comedy Production.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (b05y18ps)
Reluctant birthday girl Fallon reckons she can only spare ten minutes for a drink later. Harrison sneaks into The Bull at lunchtime to do some prep, on the pretext of seeing Jolene. Later he quietly rounds everyone up for Fallon's surprise film screening. It does the trick and Fallon's delighted; how did Harrison know it's her favourite film?
As Mike checks everything's safely out of Willow Cottage, he notes sadly that he can't take Betty's tree with him. It would have broken her heart if she'd known about Roy's marriage troubles. Roy and Brenda encourage Mike gently to remember the good times. For his part Mike entreats Roy not to give up on Hayley - they were meant to be together, just like him and Betty. Roy avoids answering. As they see him off Mike rues the end of an era.
Kate's feeling sorry for herself over her parents' reaction to her dropping out of her course. Lilian's sympathetic, assuring Kate that Jennifer must be blaming herself deep down. They bond over their recent experiences with relationships. The solution, declares Lilian, is to put on their best frocks and paint the town red. Over gin at the Bull Lilian encourages Kate to have faith; together they'll come up with a plan that will amaze everyone.
FRI 19:15 Front Row (b05y18pv)
Julie Taymor, The Driver's Seat, Sarah Winman
The American director Julie Taymor won worldwide acclaim, and became the first woman to win a directing Tony, for The Lion King, the highest grossing musical production on Broadway. She also has a longstanding passion for Shakespeare and has made films both of Titus Andronicus and The Tempest. She discusses her production of A Midsummer Night's Dream as it is released in cinemas.
The National Theatre of Scotland's latest production is The Driver's Seat, an adaptation of Muriel Spark's novel of the same name about an enigmatic young woman looking for adventure in a European city. The Glasgow Herald's theatre critic Neil Cooper reviews the show.
Sarah Winman's debut novel, When God Was A Rabbit, was one of the big publishing successes of 2011, winning over critics, readers, book prize judges, and apparently, the Duchess of Cambridge. She talks to Kirsty Lang about her second novel A Year of Marvellous Ways.
As the David O. Russell film Accidental Love is released under a different director's name, critic Mark Eccleston reflects on the difficult decision faced by film studios when it comes to whether or not to release a troubled film.
Presenter: Kirsty Lang
Producer: Olivia Skinner.
FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b05y16ms)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b05y18px)
Joanna Cherry MP, Lord Jones of Birmingham, Johann Lamont MSP, Rory Stewart MP
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from the Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year, with the new Scottish National Party MP Joanna Cherry QC who also speaks for her party on Justice issues at Westminster. She'll be joined by Lord Jones of Birmingham or Digby Jones who sits on a range of industry boards, the former leader of the Scottish Labour Party Johann Lamont MSP,and the new minister in the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affaris, Rory Stewart MP.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b05y18pz)
Adam Gopnik: Indispensable Man
Adam Gopnik found himself supplanted as his family's waffle maker while he was away on a trip and concludes there are no indispensable people in any organization (or family) anywhere, though we all like to imagine that there are. There are only instructions on the side of the box, which anyone can follow.
Producer: Sheila Cook.
FRI 21:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b05y18q1)
15-19 June 1915
The Graham household is in chaos and not expecting visitors.
Written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz & Georgia Fitch
Story-led by Sebastian Baczkiewicz
Consultant Historian: Professor Maggie Andrews
Music: Matthew Strachan
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Directed by Lucy Collingwood
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
FRI 21:58 Weather (b05xw7bl)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b05y18q3)
Dylann Roof appears in court in South Carolina, accused of shooting dead 9 black churchgoers
Should it be classed as terrorism?
FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b05z2mc6)
Saint Mazie
Episode 5
More than 90 years after Mazie Phillips - the proprietress of famed New York City movie theatre, the Venice - began her diary, it is discovered by a documentarian in search of a good story.
So who was Mazie Phillips? Diary extracts, interwoven with voices from past and present, paint a picture of her adventurous life - played out during the Jazz Age, when romance and booze were aplenty. But the Great Depression looms.
Episode 5 (of 10)
When tragedy strikes again a new start beckons on Coney Island. But Jeanie has other plans.
Written by Jami Attenberg - author of a story collection, Instant Love, and three novels, The Kept Man, The Melting Season, and The Middlesteins, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. She has also contributed essays and criticism to The New York Times, Real Simple, Elle, The Washington Post, and many other publications. Jami lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Readers:
Mazie Phillips.......Samantha Spiro
Other parts..........Kerry Shale
Abridged by Jeremy Osborne
Produced by Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 23:00 A Good Read (b05xxjgn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (b05y18q5)
Mark D'Arcy and the BBC parliamentary team report from Westminster.
FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (b05y18q7)
Anya and Dixie - Brave like Mum
Fi Glover introduces a conversation between a father and daughter about loss and remembrance; their wife and mother died three years ago but is still much missed and admired. Another in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess.