The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
White, working class boys at school: Laurie Taylor talks to Garth Stahl. Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of South Australia, and author of a new study about boys' underachievement in Britain. Why do so many disengage from education? They're joined by Heather Mendick, Reader in Education at Brunel University.
Also, the grand, French intellectual tradition. Dr Sudhir Hazareesingh, political scientist and writer, explores the prominence of thinkers in the life and history of France. From Voltaire to Foucault, how have intellectuals contributed to the distinctiveness of the nation?
Spiritual reflection to start the day with the Rev Bob Fyffe, General Secretary of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.
New developments in the supermarket milk price war - but it won't necessarily be the farmers supplying the big retail names who will suffer as a result. Also in the programme, Scottish Scallop fishermen are worried about the impact of new conservation areas. And, will British flower growing blossom whilst the vintage look is on trend?
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Martin Hughes-Games presents the Black-Tailed Godwit. A black-tailed godwit in its summer finery is a stunningly attractive bird, russet brown with a long orange and black bill. A few pairs of black-tailed godwits breed in the UK, most of them in damp grazing meadows such as the Ouse Washes in East Anglia. When breeding is over the male and female split up and spend the winter months apart, often in widely separated locations.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
On Start the Week Andrew Marr discusses the legacy of the philosopher Alan Watts with the writer Tim Lott and psychotherapist Mark Vernon. Watts popularised Buddhism and Eastern philosophy in the West and in Tim Lott's latest coming-of-age novel set in the 1970s he reflects on the power of self-discovery, while Mark Vernon questions how therapy has appropriated Buddhist ideas. The writer and translator Maureen Freely looks back at her itinerant upbringing in America, Turkey and Greece, and explores how she became the translator of other people's words and worlds, including the Nobel-prize winning author Orhan Pamuk. It's a 150 years since the first Welsh settlers established a community in Patagonia in Argentina, and the theatre director Marc Rees looks at how his countrymen retained their welsh identity in an alien landscape.
The story of Gertrude Bell and her crucial role in the foundation of the state of Iraq. A ferociously independent-minded young woman leaves Oxford and experiences the desert for the first time. A few years later oil is discovered in Mesopotamia.
First published in 2006, Queen of the Desert by Georgina Howell has been reissued - partly to coincide with the Werner Herzog film of the same title, but also to provide the long view on the troubled history of a remarkable country.
Using letters written by Gertrude Bell throughout the period, the book tells the story of an extraordinarily talented and determined woman who has often been overshadowed by her more famous friend T.E. Lawrence.
Rosamund Lupton's love affair with the Northern Alaskan landscape, Does anorexia have a genetic link?
Her first novel, Sister, was the fastest selling by a debut author and is due to be made into a film starring Emily Blunt. Rosamund Lupton's latest thriller, set in the extreme landscape of Northern Alaska features a woman and her profoundly deaf 10 year old daughter trying to find out the truth about the disappearance of her husband. Jane Garvey talks to her about the new book and her love affair with Alaska.
Do eating disorders have a genetic link? And could early intervention, help sufferers of anorexia and bulimia recover faster.
Author Georgina Howell talks about her book Queen of the Desert - this week's Radio 4 Book of the Week. It's a biography Gertrude Bell drawn from letters written throughout her life and documents her phenomenal rise through the all-male ranks of military intelligence. But who is the real Gertrude Bell?
More from the Tales of the City series by Armistead Maupin. Here Lin Coghlan dramatises stories from the novels Significant Others and Sure of You . Back in Barbary Lane, Mrs Madrigal is still attending her sensamilla plants .. Michael has found love again with his new boyfriend Thack. Brian and Mary Anne have gone to higher ground. living in a house which looms over Barbary Lane on The Summit .
Kate Silverton uncovers the story of the English schoolgirls who were captured by pirates off the China coast, and later ended up in a Japanese concentration camp with Eric Liddell.
In 1935, the SS Tungchow was taken over by a dozen Chinese pirates as it emerged from the Yangtse River. They were expecting a cargo of gold bullion but instead found three lady teachers and seventy British missionaries' children, on their way to Chefoo boarding school on the North China coast.
Six years later, in 1941, these same children became enemy aliens when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour. They were imprisoned in the Weihsien Internment Camp, Shantung Province, along with 500 other children, half of them without parents. The morale of the girls and their teachers was greatly improved by two Brownie packs and a Girl Guide Company. Their sports were organised by Eric Liddell, (Chariots of Fire) until he died.
Margaret Holder, née Vinden.
Beryl Goodland, née Welch.
Kathleen Foster, née Strange.
Mary Previte, née Taylor.
Sketch troupe So On and So Forth - featuring John Sherman, Nick Gadd and Martin Allanson - have performed together for the last five years, refining their particularly British style of sketch comedy. They have recently recruited top comedy actress Alison Thea-Skot to bring some class 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.
In 2011 they headed to the Edinburgh Fringe where they performed several shows a day, picked up rave reviews and developed webbed feet. With a growing reputation in the live arena they started filming sketches whenever possible hoping to revel in the untold riches of YouTube. Later that year they won the Cofilmic award for Best Sketch, and one of their online sketches featured on Comedy Central's hit US show Tosh.0 as Video of the Week which helped to ratchet up just shy of a quarter of a million hits on their YouTube page.
Later in 2012 they were commissioned by BBC Worldwide to produce yet more sparkly new web sketches. In 2013 the team featured on Radio 4's very own show Sketchorama and, following those stand out performances and their online work, they have been given the opportunity to make their own series.
Electricity generated by burning wood pellets is regarded by many as a "green" fuel. The idea is that carbon emitted when it's burnt is offset by the carbon absorbed when the trees are growing. When trees are felled, more are planted. A major British electricity generator has begun importing wood pellets from the United States, as fuel for its biomass plant. We investigate the green credentials of the process.
A new approach to reducing the number of empty homes in London. We speak to the company offering rewards to people who identify empty properties that can be bought, renovated and re-sold.
Following our report into the crisis in General Practice, we speak to a family doctor about how his workload led him to close his surgery after many years of struggling to make it work.
It's two years since the Oxford English Dictionary made 'selfie' its word of the year. Since then, 'selfie' has been used to describe the 'selfie generation' and recently, the 'selfie election'. Aimee Fuller is a 23 year old snowboarder who competed at last year's Winter Olympics - she explores the selfie phenomenon and asks whether it really defines her generation. Aimee explains how social media is part and parcel of what she does as an athlete, helping her to communicate with her fans - and the selfie is an important element of that.
The programme explores the broader significance of the selfie as a form of photography. What sort of a photograph is the selfie and what do photographers make of it? Katrina Sluis from the Photographers Gallery in London puts it into the context of self portraits.
Why have younger people taken to the selfie with such enthusiasm and what does that tell us about their social attitudes? Economist writer, Jeremy Cliffe explains how the selfie generation use social media and why.
A story of myth and faith set at this year's St David's Day celebrations in the city of the same name.
The legends of Welsh saints are full of sex and violence - but you can also find faith in Britain's smallest city. It might seem that St David's Day in St Davids is just full of fun and games for the children, but for two of this year's pilgrims it's a serious business as they seek help and guidance from two Welsh saints.
The writer Douglas Livingstone and director Jane Morgan have taken various "Roads" over the years - visiting an event and recording the sounds particular to it before Douglas writes a play based on their experiences.
Their first play, the Sony Award winning Road to Rocio, was about a pilgrimage in Andalusia and this year's play is also about a pilgrimage - a handful of people making their way from St. Non's Well, where St Non gave birth to David, to the cathedral in Britain's smallest city. For the children it's all about the Dragon's Parade in the city, but for many it's a profound experience and two of the pilgrims need considerable help and guidance from the Welsh saints.
A largely Welsh cast is headed by the young English actress Faye Castelow (RSC and National Theatre) and they're supported ably by the people of St. Davids themselves. It's a beautifully dramatic mix of ancient myth, dragons, adultery and faith with special recordings made on location.
Competitors from London and West Sussex join Paul Gambaccini for heat four of the 2015 tournament. Among the musical topics Paul will be quizzing them on are Wagner, the witches in the musical Wicked, and what caused Mrs Mary Whitehouse to have a spat with 'Top of the Pops' in 1972.
The contenders will also have to choose a special musical subject on which to answer a set of individual questions, with no warning of what the topics are going to be. At stake is a place in the 2015 semi-finals.
The forgotten women of the Beat Generation supported, loved, endured, and were creatively overshadowed by their famous male counterparts. More than just muses, they were often authors in their own right. Laura Barton travels to New York to meet some of these women, writers such as Joyce Johnson, who already had a book deal when she met Jack Kerouac as a young woman, but has seen her long career overshadowed by her brief time as Keraouc's girlfriend. Hettie Jones risked everything to defy 1950's convention and her Jewish parents to marry the black poet LeRoi Jones, who later became Amiri Baraka.
Then there are writers such as Anne Waldman, from a later generation to Hettie and Joyce, who learnt from the Beat Generation and aims to keep the tradition alive today.
While in many cases the work of the women of the Beats was not be as innovative as their male counterparts, Laura argues that we should celebrate the writing of the women who fought to forge their own paths, for whom merely telling their story was a struggle.
To Muslims, Muhammed is the most important person who ever lived. He is the Seal or the last of all the prophets, the one chosen by God to receive his final revelation. To insult the memory of the Prophet is a blasphemy and a body blow to the Muslim believer. It can carry terrible consequences as the staff of Charlie Hebdo discovered when they published cartoons which were thought by Muslims to be demeaning their Prophet. The Qur'an tells us very little about Muhammed. What we do know comes from the stories and traditions about the Prophet, known as the Hadiths, which were compiled after his death. Those stories provide moral examples of how to behave; but they also impact all of Islamic history.
Ernie Rea is joined by Jonathan Brown, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilisation at Georgetown University; Sahib Bleher, Imam and author on the Qur'an; and Tom Holland, a Classicist and author of several best selling books including In The Shadow of the Sword, on the origins of Islam.
Tunisia arrests suspects over attack on tourists. Juncker "feels betrayed" by the Greek government. Lord Janner to be prosecuted over alleged child sex abuse.
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.
Lynda and Kate enjoy it out in Adam's herbal ley, which is really flourishing. It's a hive of activity with bees and butterflies. Lynda remarks that she has watched Kate grow up. Kate points out that she hasn't, according to Brian. Spotting the women, Brian makes the point that this area is not a conservation site or tourist attraction but serious grazing land. Lynda's encouraging when Kate mentions that's she's developing an idea - Lynda knows herself what it's like to be a creative spirit in an unappreciative world.
With Toby out wheeler-dealing, talking to suppliers etc, Pip admits to Rex that farming is all she has ever known. Pip also warns Rex that he needs to make sure his brother pulls his weight with the geese business. Pip and Rex are showered in water as there's a loose tap connection, just as Toby returns in a pickup truck he has bought - he teases Rex about Pip.
Debbie and Brian talk on the phone - she's supportive of Adam. Brian begs Debbie to talk to Adam though (to stop him making all these changes at Home Farm). She must do this one thing for him...
Kirsty Lang talks to David Suchet about playing Lady Bracknell on stage in The Importance of Being Earnest.
A major exhibition of Jackson Pollock at Tate Liverpool focusses on his lesser known black pourings. Andrea Rose reviews.
Claudia Rankine is an American poet, born in Jamaica, whose new collection of anti-racist lyric essays, Citizen, has been shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize.
"Every one of you has a voice to speak or not, it is your choice, but silence is not golden, silence is the truth stolen, and stealing of the truth, is exactly what them do to the youth." From the poem "Revolution" by Dean Atta.
Young voters are failing to pick up the voting habit. Many people think the youth don't care - they are seen as lazy, not interested. In the lead up to May's general election, Dean talked to politicians and to the young voters who think they don't have a role to play.
What will entice this generation into politics? Do the elected have an answer? What do the political parties have to say to encourage Dean to stay politically engaged?
Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith gives Dean some hope, Labour's David Lammy believes this generation has to stay engaged, while Green MP Caroline Lucas has appeal to the young. But it's in East Glasgow, at the office of SNP candidate Natalie McGarry, where the campaign seems at its most lively and dynamic.
Dean grew up in Wembley but he's not into football. "I'd go to the station and see floods of fans in the streets." For him, football felt like a bizarre cult, something he was not part of. For many, political parties are the same, so no one joins them - and because no one joins them, they look ever more like bizarre cults.
The American philosopher Samuel Scheffler reveals a hidden force which motivates our actions: our belief in the continuation of humanity after our deaths. In an interview with Edward Stourton, plus a Q&A from an audience at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Scheffler proposes thought experiments which expose the importance of this conception of the afterlife. It is, he argues, this continued existence of the human race in general - and not just of our own descendants - which gives meaning and purpose to much of our lives. With references to Woody Allen, National Porn Shops and Martin Luther. Scheffler is professor of philosophy and law at New York University.
Brett Westwood tries to uncover the truth about the elusive giant squid. Is it the monster literature portrays lurking in the deep of the ocean or a timid misunderstood creature?
Tennyson evokes the deep, slumbering Kraken as a monster slumbering in the cold, dark depths of the ocean. Twenty Thousand Leagues brings that monster into focus as it tries to drag a ship underwater and devour the terrified crew. Where did these stories come from?
The Odyssey was the first known piece of literature to suggest a tentacle beast of the sea and it has never left our imagination. Yet when a giant squid was filmed by Japanese scientists, and then one was fished out of the ocean near the Falklands, we now see that giant squid are extraordinary, rather beautiful creatures.
Far from being a terrifying monster they peck delicately at their food and are afraid of loud noises. For a monster they are remarkably timid. With recent discoveries and increasing knowledge have we vanquished the monster from the deep? Or will our need for monsters mean we create another, even stranger beast? Or perhaps now that our sea faring days exploring the unknown oceans are over will our monsters come from outer space, the last frontier?
Will we always need a monster to scare us? Many academics say yes - if you want to know what a society is frightened of, look at its monsters.
Tsipras hits back at stinging criticism from Eurozone leaders over debt crisis.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker accuses Greek PM of betrayal
Narrated by the aging Mattie Ross, True Grit is Mattie's recollection of events, many years earlier, when, as a fourteen year old girl she undertook an unthinkable quest to avenge her father's death...
Mattie's father, Frank Ross, left the family farm near the town of Dardanelle in Yell County, Arkansas, on a trip to buy some ponies, but was tragically never to return. He was shot dead and robbed by Tom Chaney, one of his own workers, who then fled, and is suspected to be hiding out in Indian Territory.
Mattie travels to Fort Smith to arrange for the return of her father's body and to enquire as to what is being done to find her father's killer. Finding the local lawmen disinterested, Mattie resolves to take matters into her own hands and seeks out the toughest deputy U.S. Marshal in the district, one Reuben J. 'Rooster' Cogburn. Although an aging, one-eyed, overweight, trigger-happy, hard-drinking man, Mattie believes Cogburn has 'true grit' and is the man best suited to help her.
Mattie persuades Cogburn to take on the job, and, joined by a Texas Ranger named La Boeuf, the three travel into dark, dangerous Indian country to hunt Chaney down and bring him to justice.
First brought to the big screen in a classic 1969 western starring John Wayne and more recently by the Cohen brothers in a film starring Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit has been abridged for Radio 4 by Doreen Estall, and is read by Nancy Crane.
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. Tonight is Robert's second choice - Miriam Gonzalez Durantez.
TUESDAY 30 JUNE 2015
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b0606jtr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b0607w1j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b0606jtt)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b0606jtw)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b0606jty)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b0606jv0)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b061bnww)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with the Rev Bob Fyffe, General Secretary of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b06084yw)
Orkney Farmers Say Worst Spring Ever
There's a heat wave forecast in the south but Orkney farmers have been struggling with cold, wet weather for months.
New figures from the British Beekeepers Association show that 14.5% of bee colonies died over the winter, continuing the downward trend of the last three years.
Anna Hill hears about new technology and renewable energy in the British cut flower industry.
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dx91j)
Tree Sparrow
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Martin Hughes-Games presents the Tree Sparrow. With its russet cap, white cheeks and smarter appearance, the tree sparrow looks like a freshly-scrubbed house sparrow. Unlike house sparrows whose sexes look very different, the male and female tree sparrows are identical.
TUE 06:00 Today (b06085ch)
Morning news and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather, Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (b06085ck)
Henry Marsh on brain surgery
Neurosurgeon Henry Marsh talks to Jim Al-Khalili about slicing through thoughts, hopes and memories. Brain surgery, he says, is straightforward. It's deciding whether or not to operate that's hard.
The stakes are high and it's never clear cut. He often dreads having to talk to patients and their families. Damage to healthy brain cells can result in a dramatic change to someone's quality of life; but if a bit of a tumour remains, it's likely to grow back. "How do you tell someone that the best option may be to go away and die?"
Once, against his professional judgment, Henry went ahead with surgery because the patient wanted him to operate. The patient died and he blames himself for not being stronger. He talks openly about the cemetery that all doctors inevitably carry with them; and why he would rather be seen as a fallible human being, than either a superhero or villain. Perhaps it's inevitable that doctors are put on a pedestal but it can be unhelpful.
Despite a chronic lack of science at school and university, Henry decided to become a neurosurgeon, having found general surgery rather disgusting. Soon after, his three month old son had surgery for a brain tumour: an experience which, he says, helped him to appreciate the fog of anxiety and concern that descends on the people he treats.
Getting the balance right between compassion and detachment is a constant challenge. And Henry admits, he pioneered brain surgery under local anaesthetic, in part as a way of confronting head on the almost 'Jekyll and Hyde like split' between being a surgeon in the operating theatre and a friendly consultant who talks to and cares for his patients.
Producer: Anna Buckley.
TUE 09:30 One to One (b06085cm)
Michael Grade talks to Chris Hunter
Not a risk-taker by nature, Michael Grade has always been fascinated by those who are. In the final interview of his series he talks to Chris Hunter about his career as a high threat bomb disposal officer. What attracts someone to such a dangerous business and how do friends and family deal with their anxiety?
Producer Lucy Lunt.
TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b0617192)
Georgina Howell - Queen of the Desert
Episode 2
The story of Gertrude Bell and her crucial role in the foundation of the state of Iraq.
In 1917, Gertrude - Major Miss Bell - arrived in Baghdad to work for Sir Percy Cox as a political officer and part of the team who were determined to rebuild a region reeling from war and famine.
First published in 2006, Queen of the Desert by Georgina Howell has been reissued - partly to coincide with the Werner Herzog film of the same title, but also to provide the long view on the troubled history of a remarkable country.
Using letters written by Gertrude Bell throughout the period, the book tells the story of an extraordinarily talented and determined woman who has often been overshadowed by her more famous friend T.E. Lawrence.
Read by Sylvestra le Touzel and Deborah Findlay (the letters)
Abridged and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b06085cp)
SlutWalk, Emma Banks, Michelle Ping
Michelle Ping, Royal Navy Reservist, talks about her work training Armed Forces and health workers to fight the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone.
Emma Banks represents some of the world's leading musicians including Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Florence and the Machine and many others. She's also Chair of Nordoff Robbins, a music therapy charity, which is approaching its 30th anniversary.
Marches against sexual violence have been happening for decades but have received little attention in the mainstream press. So why, when an anti-rape march took place in April 2011 called SlutWalk, subsequently repeated around the world, did the press pay so much attention?
Presenter: Jane Garvey
Producer: Lucinda Montefiore.
TUE 10:45 Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City (b06085q8)
Significant Others
Episode 2
Armistead Maupin's much loved characters are back . Lin Coghlan dramatises Significant Others and Sure of You from the Tales of the City series. It's San Francisco in the 80's Mary Ann Singleton's TV career is going well when old boyfriend Burke turns up. Mouse
Produced by Charlotte Riches
Directed in Salford by Susan Roberts.
TUE 11:00 Natural Histories (b05w9b5b)
Lions
Brett Westwood explores how lions have been harnessed by humans as a symbol of strength and power throughout the ages.
For hundreds of years two beasts lay beneath the mud of the moat surrounding the Tower of London. Only when workmen dug them up in 1935 did the sun warm their bones once more. They were once kept as fearsome gatekeepers, reminding people visiting the king exactly where power lay - or that was the idea. In reality they were diseased, malnourished and died young.
From the exquisitely depicted lions painted on cave walls in the Palaeolithic through to those kept in the Tower of London and the lions sitting around Nelson's column this programme looks at how we have used lions.
Lions are used in literature to represent authority and majesty, and C S Lewis used a lion - Aslan - to be the figure of Christ, a mysterious, wild presence that cannot be tamed.
However, this attention has come at great cost. Barbary lions, the magnificently-maned North African species most used by the Romans for gladiatorial combat and dispatching Christians, were so over-exploited they are now extinct: the first documented example of mass extinction on the mainland at the hands of humans.
We might be able to breed them back again from lions in zoos that have Barbary genes still present, but should we? Would these magnificent beasts become just a curiosity, no different to those in the Tower? Maybe they had best remain as a poignant example of how power can destroy.
TUE 11:30 The Kampala Dream House (b06086dq)
Sarah Taylor visits this remarkable children's home in Kampala, Uganda.
Amidst the slums of Kampala, MLISADA is a success story. (Music, life skills and arts for destitution alleviation.)
It's a children's home set up and run by former street kids who learned to play brass instruments. 12 years on, it cares for 90 children, teaches them music and acrobatics and they are safe from the perils of street life. Former pupils like euphonium player, Franke, have gone on to be teachers within the wider school communities of Kampala. It's supported by keen brass players from around the world - including BA pilot and trumpet player, Jim Trott who took star trumpet players Alison Balsom and Guy Barker out there last January to run music workshops with the pupils.
Sarah talks to Alison about how her involvement with the work of Brass for Africa has influenced her approach to performing on concert platforms around the world.
Most importantly, if you get to live in the Dream House, as it's known by the kids, you've got a chance of a future. A future where you can learn to be a teacher, or simply access a better school and then go on to get a better job because you've got the bedrock of living at MLISADA. And you'll be a great trumpet player too!
Producer: Sarah Taylor.
TUE 12:00 News Summary (b0606jv3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 Home Front (b06087bh)
30 June 1915 - Esme Macknade
The Grahams have a plan to match-make Toby with their recently bereaved daughter, Juliet.
Written by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Lucy Collingwood
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
TUE 12:15 You and Yours (b06087bk)
Call You and Yours: How Safe Do You Feel?
With the terror threat level raised across Europe, how safe do you feel? Should we change because of terror attacks or carry on regardless?
TUE 12:57 Weather (b0606jv5)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 13:00 World at One (b0608dvr)
With more last minute talks on the Greece Crisis under way, we hear from voters in Athens as they weigh up the options, and examine the practicalities of Greece leaving the Euro.
A survivor of Friday's terrorist attack pays tribute to the Tunisians who helped her escape from the gunman.
As the government prepares to limit Freedom of Information we ask whether the law impedes good government
And how how interviews about British deaths in Afghanistan on this programme inspired a powerful work of performance art.
TUE 13:45 Me, My Selfie and I: Aimee Fuller's Generation Game (b0617194)
Episode 2
Snowboarder Aimee Fuller presents the second part of her series exploring the significance of the selfie.
In today's programme, 19 year old singer songwriter Nina Nesbitt talks about her song 'Selfies'. Nina has used social media to communicate with her fans since she was 15 and explains how it has helped her develop her career. She wrote the song to explain why people take selfies in their relationships and the image that they want to present about themselves. She discusses why people want to take the best picture of themselves in a selfie
Katrina Sluis from the Photographers Gallery discusses the selfie as a cultural form of photography and explains how photographers are interested in it as a new form, using networks like Instagram.
David Houghton, a lecturer at Birmingham University Business School, specialises in research into online relationship development. He explains how the selfie is received in different ways by different groups on social networks. He says this means people undertake 'impression management' to convey an impression to groups on their network.
The criticism by musician Damon Albarn of the young generation of musicians for being self absorbed as 'the selfie generation' is questioned by Economist writer Jeremy Cliffe who says, although it is a self centred activity, it is also a social activity. He says it channels instincts through a new form of technology.
Producer: Philip Reevell
A Manchester Digital Media production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (b06084l1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (b0608dvt)
A World Elsewhere
A WORLD ELSEWHERE
by Clara Glynn
Rida is a Glasgow teenager. Like a lot of teenagers she argues with her mum, stresses about exams and spends too long on her computer. But as a young Muslim the pressures that she faces in her life, and the escape that she dreams of online, may contain dangers she has yet to imagine.
This innovative radio drama all takes place in Rida's online world - the place where she feels she can most be herself. We listen to the YouTube clips she finds, her instant messaging with friends and the bloggers she reads.
A WORLD ELSEWHERE is a sensitive portrayal of one girl's path to radicalisation.
All other parts played by members of the cast.
Producer/director: David Ian Neville.
TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (b05zzwpl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
TUE 15:30 The Human Zoo (b0608dvw)
Series 6
The Improvising Mind
The Human Zoo is the programme that looks at current events through the lens of psychology. From scandals to markets, elections to traffic jams, discover the nuts and bolts of human behaviour that link public life to our most private thoughts and motivations.
Are people led by the head or by the heart? How rational are we? And how do we perceive the world? The programme blends intriguing experiments that reveal our biases and judgements, explorations and examples taken from what's in the news and what we do in the kitchen - all driven by a large slice of curiosity.
We like to say that all human behaviour could turn up in The Human Zoo, including yours.
In this episode: the flat mind. What if our 'inner world' of images, thoughts and beliefs isn't as three-dimensional as the world around us? What if we're just making it up as we go along?
Recorded at the Cheltenham Science Festival, Michael Blastland investigates, with resident Zoo psychologist Professor Nick Chater and reporter Timandra Harkness.
Special guests this week are advertising guru Rory Sutherland, psychologist Dr Kate Cross from St Andrews University, Elleke Boehmer, professor of world literature in English at at Wolfson College Oxford and author of The Shouting in the Dark, neuroscientist Dr Peter Zeidman from University College London, Dr Martin Coath from the Cognition Institute at Plymouth University and experimental psychologist Professor Bruce Hood from the University of Bristol.
Presenter: Michael Blastland
Producer: Eve Streeter and Dom Byrne
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 16:00 Amerasians: Children of the Dust (b0608dvy)
The story of Vietnamese Amerasians is shaped by hardship, rejection and courage.
Born of relationships between Vietnamese women and American servicemen during the Vietnam War, many were simply abandoned and left to fend for themselves by mothers fearful of retaliation from a victorious Communist government. A great number were lost to illness and malnutrition in those challenging post-war years and those who survived were widely ostracized by a society still coming to terms with the war.
Trista Goldberg was one of a minority who managed to escape the country as a baby and was raised by an adopted family in the U.S. In both America and Vietnam, she discovers how Amerasians have survived in the forty years since the end of the war.
Almost all are united by a common dream to find the American fathers who left them behind. The dream came closer to reality when congress passed the Amerasian Homecoming Act in 1988, allowing those who could prove their identity the chance to migrate to the USA.
Growing up, Lyna Tiernan suffered bullying and harassment in a society that shunned the 'Children of the Dust'. Now living a successful life in Massachussets, she will never forget the day her phone rang and she heard her father's voice for the first time.
Suzanne Thi Hien Hook followed an unusual path to Britain, and then returned to Vietnam as an adult to help other orphans. Like thousands of Amerasians, she is hoping that scientific advancements in DNA testing will help her find her birth family.
Contributors united by the circumstances of their birth and a valiant effort to explore their past, share moving personal testimony shaped by differing journeys of suffering and hope.
Producer: Neil Kanwal
A BlokMedia production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (b0608h7q)
Jon Richardson and Emma Kennedy
Comedian Jon Richardson and actor/writer Emma Kennedy recommend favourite books to Harriett Gilbert. Jon introduces the compelling real-life story of Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty. Ruess was a boy whose extraordinary adventures in the American wilderness in the 1930s ended in a mystery that is still unexplained.
Emma chooses what she considers the funniest book that's ever been written: The Ascent of Rum Doodle by WE Bowman, a spoof account of an heroic mountaineering expedition.
Harriett's pick is the influential memoir Bad Blood by Lorna Sage.
Producer Beth O'Dea.
TUE 17:00 PM (b0608h7s)
News interviews, context and analysis.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b0606jv7)
Greece puts forward new proposals to try to end its long-running debt crisis
TUE 18:30 It's Not What You Know (b0608h7v)
Series 3
Episode 1
What is Sarah Millican's worst habit? Who is Richard Osman's mum's favourite recording artist? What would Nathan Caton be doing if he wasn't a comedian?
All these questions, and more, will be answered in the show hosted by Miles Jupp, where panellists are tested on how well they know their nearest and dearest.
In this case, Richard Osman picks his mother, Sarah Millican her mate Lou, and Nathan Caton his brother Mekel to answer questions about each other.
Producer: Matt Stronge.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (b0608h7x)
Helen jokes with Rob, who has wriggled out of going round to Pat and Tony's tonight to look at hundreds of holiday photos. Talking happily about marriage plans, Helen reminds Rob to ask Charlie for time off for their holiday.
Charlie and Rob talk about cricket and Tom and Helen have a jokey spat about her sudden interest in the sport - she never supported Tom, Tony or their late brother John when they used to play. As Charlie comments on Rob's two straight 'man of the match' awards, Rob remarks that he's only interested in doing his best for the team (on the pitch and at work).
Charlie's annoyed that Rob has let their employee Stefan leave Berrow Farm for good - why didn't Rob try to persuade Stefan to stay? With no answers about the blocked culvert, it seems to be case closed, suggests Rob. Rob then chooses his moment to ask for some time off.
Tony and Pat tell Helen and Tom about their good news from the HSE. They also stun their children with the news that they plan to retire, handing over control to Tom and Helen.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (b0608h7z)
Frank McGuinness's A Song for Jenny, Magic Mike, John Waters, Chinese art
Frank McGuinness discusses A Song for Jenny, his drama starring Emily Watson as Julie Nicholson, who lost her daughter Jenny in the 7/7 attacks in London.
After audiences booed the Royal Opera House's production of William Tell last night, critic Fiona Maddocks who was there, discusses what prompted the reaction.
Jenny McCartney reviews Magic Mike XXL, the follow-up to Steven Soderbergh's original film about male strippers, also starring Channing Tatum.
Film-maker, writer and artist John Waters, best-known for feature length films Pink Flamingos and Hairspray, launches an exhibition of photo-based artwork. Beverly Hills John is his first ever exhibition in London.
The Swiss art collector Ulli Sigg began buying contemporary art in China after he started working there in the late 1970s. As part of this collection goes on show at The Whitworth gallery in Manchester, the Director of the gallery, Dr Maria Balshaw, explains its significance.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Ellie Bury.
TUE 19:45 Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City (b06085q8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (b0608h81)
The Aid Business
The UK's £12 billion pound foreign aid budget is one of the few areas of Government spending protected from cuts. The commitment to spend 0.7% of Britain's gross national income on aid means at least 60 billion pounds will be spent on overseas development in the next five years. Many of these projects are delivered by large companies that receive tens of millions of pounds from DFID (the Department for International Development). They can charge over a thousand pounds a day for a consultant and their directors earn six figure salaries but how effective are they are and the programmes they are paid to deliver? Simon Cox investigates the UK's aid industry and asks how taxpayers can know that they're getting value for money.
Reporter: Simon Cox Producer: Gail Champion.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (b0608h83)
Shared Spaces, Photography
There are more than one hundred shared space areas in the UK. Presenter Peter White and guide dog user Joel Young check out a shared space junction in Reading and Peter speaks to Guide Dogs' chief executive Richard Leaman and transport consultant Phil Jones in the studio.
Reporter Cheryl Gabriel explores sensory photography with participants from Sense at a Photovoice workshop in London.
Producer: Anna Bailey
Presenter: Peter White
Editor: Karen Dalziel.
TUE 21:00 Inside Health (b0608h85)
Emergency abdominal surgery, Thermometers, Vitamins and dementia, Risk
Why more than 1 in 10 people having emergency abdominal surgery die within 30 days of their operation. Which thermometers parents should use and which they should not. Vitamins and dementia - a controversy dividing scientists. Could taking B vitamins lower the levels of the amino acid homocysteine and slow the onset of Alzheimer's disease? Absolute risk v relative risk.
TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (b06085ck)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 21:58 Weather (b0606jv9)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b0608h87)
Greece on the brink of default - the latest from Athens.
Eurozone Ministers reject Greece's last-minute appeal for a new bailout
TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b060lwm8)
True Grit
Episode 2
Narrated by the aging Mattie Ross, True Grit is Mattie's recollection of events, many years earlier, when, as a fourteen year old girl she undertook an unthinkable quest to avenge her father's death...
Mattie's father, Frank Ross, left the family farm near the town of Dardanelle in Yell County, Arkansas, on a trip to buy some ponies, but was tragically never to return. He was shot dead and robbed by Tom Chaney, one of his own workers, who then fled, and is suspected to be hiding out in Indian Territory.
Mattie travels to Fort Smith to arrange for the return of her father's body and to enquire as to what is being done to find her father's killer. Finding the local lawmen disinterested, Mattie resolves to take matters into her own hands and seeks out the toughest deputy U.S. Marshal in the district, one Reuben J. 'Rooster' Cogburn. Although an aging, one-eyed, overweight, trigger-happy, hard-drinking man, Mattie believes Cogburn has 'true grit' and is the man best suited to help her.
Mattie persuades Cogburn to take on the job, and, joined by a Texas Ranger named La Boeuf, the three travel into dark, dangerous Indian country to hunt Chaney down and bring him to justice.
First brought to the big screen in a classic 1969 western starring John Wayne and more recently by the Cohen brothers in a film starring Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit has been abridged for Radio 4 by Doreen Estall, and is read by Nancy Crane.
Produced by Heather Larmour.
TUE 23:00 Kevin Eldon Will See You Now (b01m0pqk)
Series 1
The One with Anubis, Almighty Jackal-Headed God of the Egyptian Underworld
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, Kevin goes into space, meets a bandit and evokes the powerful gods of Ancient Egypt. Not all at the same time, obviously - that would be weird. No, separately.
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 & 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 David Bowie circa 1973.
Written by Kevin Eldon.
With additional material by Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris (Flight Of The Conchords, That Mitchell & 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 (b0608h89)
Sean Curran reports as MPs ask if university tuition fees could rise. SNP MPs demand more powers over welfare benefits. Ministers are urged to 'sell' fracking better. And peers hear a story - about ferrets.
Editor: Peter Mulligan.
WEDNESDAY 01 JULY 2015
WED 00:00 Midnight News (b0606jw8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b0617192)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b0606jwb)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b0606jwd)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b0606jwg)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (b0606jwj)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b061bp4d)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with the Rev Bob Fyffe, General Secretary of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (b0608j7p)
Countryside Stewardship launch, Sugar Beet price drop, Flower Cooperative
A new Countryside Stewardship Scheme is launched.
Sugar beet farmers face another price drop for their crop.
Anna Hill visits a flower-grower in Lincolnshire who has launched a project to encourage more florists to buy British.
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dx944)
Twite
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Martin Hughes-Games presents the Twite. Twites are birds of heather moorland and crofting land - a Scottish name is "Heather lintie", as they nest in the shelter of wiry heather clumps and feed on seeds. To see twites, you'll need to visit some of our most scenic spots; the Scottish Isles, the moorlands of northern England or the western Irish coast.
WED 06:00 Today (b0608jms)
Morning news and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather, Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Midweek (b0608jmv)
Richard Thompson, Peter York, Julie Nicholson, Toby Clements.
Libby Purves meets musician Richard Thompson; writer and broadcaster Peter York; Julie Nicholson - whose daughter Jenny was killed during the 7/7 attacks - and novelist Toby Clements.
Peter York is an author, broadcaster and management consultant. His show How To Become A Nicer Type Of Person is at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It's his personal guide to navigating modern life from what to say, what to think to what to wear - he's definitely not fond of what he calls "sports-derived clothing." He also forbids the use of specific words such as passionate, creative, transparent and journey. How To Become A Nicer Type Of Person is at the Assembly George Square Studios, Edinburgh.
Former vicar Julie Nicholson's daughter Jenny was killed after a bomb exploded at Edgware Road Underground station on July 7th 2005. Julie's book A Song for Jenny has been adapted into a factual drama by Frank McGuinness with Emily Watson as Julie. The film chronicles the impact of the 7/7 bombings on Julie's life and those around her. It is an unflinching account of grief and how she was unable to find solace in her faith. A Song For Jenny is broadcast on BBC One.
Richard Thompson OBE is a musician and songwriter who co-founded Fairport Convention. His new album, Still, features musical references to Django Reinhardt, Les Paul and Hank Marvin. The Americana Music Association recently honoured him with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting. Robert Plant, REM, Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt and many others have recorded Richard's songs. Still is released on Proper Records. Richard Thompson is touring the UK.
Toby Clements is the author of the novel Kingmaker: Broken Faith, the second in his trilogy set against the Wars of the Roses. He became obsessed with this period of history after a school trip to Tewkesbury Abbey where he learned about the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471 when forces loyal to the House of Lancaster were defeated by the House of York under King Edward IV. During the course of his research Toby learned to use the longbow and fight with the poll axe and how to start a fire with a flint. Kingmaker Broken Faith is published by Century.
Producer: Paula McGinley.
WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b061728d)
Georgina Howell - Queen of the Desert
Episode 3
The story of Gertrude Bell and her crucial role in the foundation of the state of Iraq.
One hundred years ago, Iraq did not exist as a nation. It was a region without borders or a ruler. In the aftermath of the First World War, great men - and Gertrude Bell - assembled to determine the future of such countries.
First published in 2006, Queen of the Desert by Georgina Howell has been reissued - partly to coincide with the Werner Herzog film of the same title, but also to provide the long view on the troubled history of a remarkable country.
Using letters written by Gertrude Bell throughout the period, the book tells the story of an extraordinarily talented and determined woman who has often been overshadowed by her more famous friend, T.E. Lawrence.
Read by Sylvestra le Touzel and Deborah Findlay (the letters)
Abridged and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b0608jmx)
Woman's Hour Power List 2015: Influencers
The Power List's top ten women, judged to have the most influence in the UK are revealed in a live programme broadcast from the Radio Theatre in London. Presenters Jenni Murray and Jane Garvey are joined on stage by this year's judging panel - chair Emma Barnett, Sarah Vine, Helena Kennedy QC, Gemma Cairney, Jane Shepherdson - plus special guests.
Presenters: Jenni Murray and Jane Garvey
Producer: Anne Peacock.
WED 10:45 Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City (b0608jmz)
Significant Others
Episode 3
It's San Francisco in the 1980s. Mrs Madrigal is fighting to save the wooden steps in Barbary Lane . Dede - reluctantly and D'Or - enthusiastically - are packing the car to go to Wimminwood . Mary Ann is mulling over Burke's offer of a job in New York . Armistead Maupin's well-loved characters from his Tales of the City series continue their lives in Significant Others and Sure of You dramatised by Lin Coghlan.
Produced by Charlotte Riches.
Directed by Susan Roberts in Salford.
WED 11:00 Crisis in the Curry Kitchen (b0608jn1)
Hardeep Singh Kohli investigates how a critical shortage of chefs is threatening the future of the British curry industry.
The humble curry house has been a staple of Britain's food landscape since the 1970s - with Robin Cook famously declaring chicken tikka masala as Britain's national dish in 2001. Today there are 10,000 spice restaurants, from local curry houses to grand Michelin-starred dining rooms, employing 80,000 people in an industry worth £3.6bn.
However, we may be we witnessing the beginning of the end of the High Street curry house because a chronic lack of skilled chefs has plunged the industry into crisis.
The government's answer to the skills shortage was to invest nearly £2m in five 'curry colleges', aiming to close the skills gap by providing young Britons and EU citizens with employment opportunities in curry house kitchens.
Hardeep talks to tutors, pupils, the Asian Restaurant Skills Board, chefs and restaurant owners in Birmingham - the home of the Balti curry - to find out why interest in the courses is so low and why recruitment is proving so difficult.
Produced by Rahul Verma.
A PPM production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 11:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b039q252)
Series 3
Episode 2
John Finnemore, the writer and star of Cabin Pressure, regular guest on The Now Show and popper-upper in things like Miranda, presents a third series series of his hit sketch show.
The first series was described as 'sparklingly clever' by The Daily Telegraph and 'one of the most consistently funny sketch shows for quite some time' by The Guardian. The second series won Best Radio Comedy at both the Chortle and Comedy.co.uk awards, and was nominated for a Sony award.
This time around, John promises to stop doing silly sketches about nonsense like Winnie the Pooh's honey addiction or how goldfish invented computer programming, and concentrate instead on the the big, serious issues.
This second episode of the series addresses making new friends; the problem with polymath bestselling authors; and a brief history of choice. And the show as a whole is... slightly off.
Written by and starring John Finnemore, with Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Simon Kane, Lawry Lewin and Carrie Quinlan.
Producer: Ed Morrish.
WED 12:00 News Summary (b0606jwl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 Home Front (b0608jx9)
1 July 1915 - Alice Macknade
In Folkestone, the Dominion Day celebrations are infectious.
Written by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Lucy Collingwood
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
WED 12:15 You and Yours (b0608jzh)
Student debt, Mobility scooters, Valuation fees
How transparent are mortgage lenders being about the cost of valuation fees? And why do they cost so much? It's 18 months since an independent review of the valuation industry said that people were confused about the charges.
New research shows that thousands of students are turning to payday loans to fund everyday living costs. Do universities have a duty to intervene and look after students that are struggling in this way?
Mobility scooter use is on the up - it's quadrupled since 2007 - and they can cost as much as a small car. But the industry is all but unregulated and disabled or elderly users can often be left out of pocket. You and Yours investigates.
And we report on a new lorry with added safety benefits that could finally bring down the number of cycling accidents caused by HGVs turning left.
WED 12:57 Weather (b0606jwn)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 13:00 World at One (b0608mm3)
We ask the Defence Secretary about tackling the threat from so-called Islamic State.
After almost 3 years the Davies report into airport expansion has recommended a third runway at Heathrow - we hear from Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith who said he would resign if the Government went ahead.
And on the hottest day of the year, Sue MacGregor tests the temperature with an egg.
WED 13:45 Me, My Selfie and I: Aimee Fuller's Generation Game (b061728g)
Episode 3
What's it like to be on the receiving end of a 'selfie' photograph taken by a fan? Snowboarder Aimee Fuller continues her exploration of the selfie phenomenon.
In this third episode, Aimee starts at an event promoting the This Girl Can sporting campaign to encourage girls to take part in sports. She meets her fans and takes selfies with them before explaining how it feels to be on the receiving end of a selfie. She explains why she likes them - and how instant communication using social media makes it possible for her to stay in touch with her fans in a way that was not possible before.
David Houghton, a lecturer at the Birmingham University Business School, explains how brands have linked the way people interact on social media and with branded content. He explains how a brand and a selfie can overlap.
Katrina Sluis at the Photographers Gallery discusses how young bloggers become brand ambassadors.
Producer: Philip Reevell
A Manchester Digital Media production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 14:00 The Archers (b0608h7x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (b01r0h4m)
The Silence at the Song's End
After the death of her 23 year old son, Nicholas Heiney, Radio 4 broadcaster Libby Purves discovered, scattered about his room on bits of crumpled paper and post-it-notes, his poems and journals. His life in words.
Getting up at dawn throughout that summer, Libby set about transcribing his writings - 35,000 words - onto her computer. She deliberately chose an unfamiliar font as a way of disciplining herself not to change anything. And every day she would email what she had typed to Heiney's former English tutor, Professor Duncan Wu, at St Catherine's College, Oxford.
What followed was 'The Silence At The Song's End' - written by Nicholas Heiney and adapted for radio by Libby Purves.
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 15:00 Money Box (b0608mml)
Money Box Live: Phone, Broadband, TV Prices and Service.
Looking for a cheaper phone, broadband and TV deal or better service? Call 03700 100 444 from
1pm to
3.30pm on Wednesday 1 July or e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk with your questions.
If you haven't switched provider it's likely that you're paying too much for your phone, broadband and TV bills.
Switching provider should be easier from this month thanks to new OFCOM rules, so how does it work, how long will it take and how much could you save?
What are the best deals on the market for your needs and is it cheaper to buy your services from the same supplier? What do you need to ask so you don't get caught out by unexpected charges?
Are you happy with the service you're already signed up to? If you've a problem with billing, connection or broadband speed how do you resolve it? Can the Communications Ombudsman help?
Or perhaps there's another question you need an answer to. Whatever's on your mind why not call the programme on Wednesday.
Waiting to take your calls with presenter Lesley Curwen will be:
Jon Lenton, Communications Ombudsman.
Gautam Srivastava, Telecoms expert, Money supermarket.
Ewan Taylor-Gibson, Broadband & Expert, uswitch
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 (b0608h85)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b0608n26)
Factory music, Volunteering post-recession
Factory music:the role that popular music plays in workers' culture. Marek Korczynski, Chair in Sociology of Work at the Nottingham University Business School, talks to Laurie Taylor about his study of a British factory that manufactures window blinds, revealing how pop music can enliven monotonous work, providing a sense of community as well as moments of resistance to the tyranny of the workplace.
Also, volunteering in 'hard times': James Laurence ESRC Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, examines how the 2008-9 recession has affected peoples' willingness to do formal voluntary work as well as informal helping.
Producer:Jayne Egerton.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (b0608n28)
Tim Hincks, BBC Three going online, The future of Olympic coverage
Tim Hincks, the President of Endemol Shine, on defining and nurturing creativity, tackling the middle class bias in TV, why we should embrace the mainstream and why UK television is best when it engages with the rest of the world.
Richard Ayre from the BBC Trust explains why the Trust has given a provisional and conditional go-ahead to BBC proposals to close BBC3 as a broadcast channel and move it online, and to extend the evening hours of CBBC - but has said no to the idea of BBC One +1.
The former director of the BBC's London 2012 Olympic Games coverage, Roger Mosey discusses the International Olympic Committee's decision to award European TV rights to the games to the US communications company Discovery. How big a blow is it to the BBC and what will it mean for viewers?
And we hear the latest on reports of further job cuts at the BBC as it faces what is claimed to be a £150M shortfall in anticipated income, as more viewers choose to watch TV exclusively via online catch-up services - which are exempt from the licence fee.
WED 17:00 PM (b0608n2b)
News interviews, context and analysis.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b0606jwv)
An independent commission has recommended that a 3rd runway be built at Heathrow Airport.
WED 18:30 Big Problems with Helen Keen (b0608n2d)
Series 1
Boredom
Helen looks at the problem of boredom, and the potential solution that is gamification.
Covering everything from bear-baiting to loyalty points, the show also asks how many times you can spot the mystery word?
Starring Helen Keen with Peter Serafinowicz and Susy Kane.
Written by Helen Keen and Miriam Underhill.
Producer: Gareth Edwards.
First broadcast on BBC Radoi 4 in July 2015.
WED 19:00 The Archers (b0608n4s)
Kate asks Adam for advice on how to sell the idea she's working on with Lilian to Brian. Adam says be calm, don't get defensive and be prepared with facts and figures.
Toby Fairbrother picks up the goslings from Norfolk - Rex is horrified that he has come back with 250 rather than the agreed 100. But Toby feels it was a good deal. Pip suggests they have a stall at the village fete on 19th July to promote the geese. This year's fete theme is 'Ambridge through the ages'. They should celebrate their success with a drink at the Bull, says Pip. Sadly for Pip, Toby can't make it, so it's just her and Rex.
Rex thanks David and asks him to pop by to see their little operation. Jill tells David she's concerned about David getting involved and giving himself extra work. Pip seems to be exploited by the Fairbrothers too. David should tell Ruth about what's going on. But David says he doesn't need to - it's enough to just let Ruth sound off about her time up North having to look after Heather. Jill trusts that David knows best.
WED 19:15 Front Row (b0608nl8)
Louis de Bernieres, The British Paraorchestra, The Desmond Elliott Prize winner, The latest Terminator film
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
WED 19:45 Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City (b0608jmz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (b0608nlb)
The Morality of Debt
It's been some time coming but the Greek debt crisis is reaching a climax. On one level this is an issue of political brinkmanship and economics, but at its heart there are profound moral questions. The moral hazard is plain to see - especially if you're a German tax payer faced with funding a seemingly bottomless pit of debt while the Greek's themselves refuse to recognise their obligations. But how moral was it for the European Union and the European Central Banks to not only happily turn a blind eye to the escalating Greek debt, but to keep on offering them more loans? And finally there's you and I and every one of us and our attitude to money and debt. The reality is that we're drowning in a sea of debt. Personal debt levels are at an all-time high. The idea of scrimping and saving until you can afford to buy something seems impossibly old fashioned in our "have it now - pay for it sometime later" society. Pension providers have been overwhelmed by people wanting to cash in and spend their savings - with holidays being the most popular choice. So much more immediately gratifying than prudently planning for an old age. And when it goes wrong of course there are those who will blame it all on politicians, greedy bankers and venal financial advisors. But the banks have to lend to someone and there were two consenting adults in the transaction. Or is money morally neutral - a token of exchange which should carry no burden of judgement? What is the morality debt?
WED 20:45 Four Thought (b0608nvd)
A Progressive Case for Authority
Eliane Glaser argues that since everyone is against authority now, the true iconoclast would make a progressive case for authority.
Producer: Giles Edwards.
WED 21:00 Science Stories (b0608nvg)
Series 1
How Perkin brought purple to the people
In 1856, a teenager experimenting at home accidentally made a colour that was more gaudy and garish than anything that had gone before. William Perkin was messing about at home, trying to make the anti-malarial, quinine; but his experiment went wrong. Instead he made a purple dye that took Victorian London by storm . Philip Ball tells the story of this famous stroke of serendipity. Laurence Llewelyn- Bowen describes the fashion sensation that ensued and chemist, Andrea Sella tells how Perkin's purple prompted the creation of much more than colourful crinolines.
Producer: Anna Buckley
WED 21:30 Midweek (b0608jmv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b0608nxs)
Greek prime minister says Sunday's referendum will go ahead.
Tsipras calls on voters to reject the programme put forward by the country's creditors.
We hear the latest and get reaction from people on the Island of Rhodes
WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b060lwpz)
True Grit
Episode 3
Narrated by the aging Mattie Ross, True Grit is Mattie's recollection of events, many years earlier, when, as a fourteen year old girl she undertook an unthinkable quest to avenge her father's death...
Mattie's father, Frank Ross, left the family farm near the town of Dardanelle in Yell County, Arkansas, on a trip to buy some ponies, but was tragically never to return. He was shot dead and robbed by Tom Chaney, one of his own workers, who then fled, and is suspected to be hiding out in Indian Territory.
Mattie travels to Fort Smith to arrange for the return of her father's body and to enquire as to what is being done to find her father's killer. Finding the local lawmen disinterested, Mattie resolves to take matters into her own hands and seeks out the toughest deputy U.S. Marshal in the district, one Reuben J. 'Rooster' Cogburn. Although an aging, one-eyed, overweight, trigger-happy, hard-drinking man, Mattie believes Cogburn has 'true grit' and is the man best suited to help her.
Mattie persuades Cogburn to take on the job, and, joined by a Texas Ranger named La Boeuf, the three travel into dark, dangerous Indian country to hunt Chaney down and bring him to justice.
First brought to the big screen in a classic 1969 western starring John Wayne and more recently by the Cohen brothers in a film starring Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit has been abridged for Radio 4 by Doreen Estall, and is read by Nancy Crane.
Produced by Heather Larmour.
WED 23:00 Bunk Bed (b0608nxv)
Series 2
Episode 3
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 touch on Tolkien, Tom and Jerry, Jewish v Irish names, guilty siblings, and whether the band Napalm Death are as good as Shakespeare.
Elsewhere in the series, Patrick and Peter deal with therapy, Chas and Dave, children's happiness, 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 I, Regress (b01rlnj4)
Series 2
Rubber
Matt Berry plays a a corrupt and bizarre regression therapist in this dark, Lynch-meets-Kaufman-style comedy.
Unsuspecting clients are taken on twisted, misleading journeys through their subconscious.
Each episode sees the doctor dealing with a different client who has come to him for a different phobia. As the patient is put under hypnosis, we 'enter' their mind, and all the various situations the hypnotherapist takes them through are played out for us to hear. The result is a dream (or nightmare-like) trip through the patient's mind, as funny as it is disturbing.
With:
Bob Mortimer
Tracy-Ann Oberman
Sally Okafor
A compelling late night listen: tune in and occupy someone else's head!
Producer: Sam Bryant
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2013.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (b0608nxx)
Heathrow Airport expansion is at the centre of Prime Minister's Questions. David Cameron says a decision will be made at the end of the year. Susan Hulme follows the reaction of MPs to the findings of a special airports commission.
Also on the programme:
* Why is the pay gap between men and women not closing?
* The SNP says they are being squeezed out of important votes at Westminster.
* Labour are critical that the government has re-defined child poverty.
* Peers voice their frustration about delays in publication of the report of the Chilcot inquiry into the war in Iraq.
* More maiden speeches by new MPs.
THURSDAY 02 JULY 2015
THU 00:00 Midnight News (b0606jxr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b061728d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b0606jxt)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b0606jxw)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b0606jxy)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (b0606jy0)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b060p84g)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with the Rev Bob Fyffe, General Secretary of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (b060b7z5)
OECD on future of farming; North York Moors potash mine; discarded fish in Scotland
As the OECD predicts the future of farming trends around the world for the decade ahead, one of their economists, Jonathan Brooks, explains why he thinks strong crop yields, higher productivity and slower growth in global demand could lead to a gradual dip in prices over the next ten years.
Members of the North York Moors National Park vote in favour of siting the world's largest potash mine in the park. BBC business correspondent Ian Reeve explains why locals are so in favour of the project, but why guardians of the landscape are deeply concerned.
Also, a row in Scotland has broken out over who should pay for the disposal of fish that's been caught but can't be sold. The EU is in the process of implementing new rules preventing fisherman throwing unwanted fish back into the sea. Next year, white fish will be covered by the ban. We hear that Scottish fishermen want to know who will cover the costs of landing fish that would previously have been discarded.
Presented by Felicity Evans and produced by Mark Smalley.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dx96d)
Goshawk
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Martin Hughes Games presents the Goshawk. A favourite bird of Martin Hughes-Games, the goshawk is a powerful deep-chested relative of the sparrowhawk: its name derives from "goose-hawk", though in practice goshawks rarely catch geese - they prefer woodpigeons, rabbits and squirrels. A female goshawk is a hefty bird, as big as a buzzard and much bulkier than her smaller mate.
THU 06:00 Today (b060bctb)
Morning news and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather, Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (b060bctg)
Frederick the Great
Frederick the Great ruled Prussia from 1740 until his death in 1786. Born in 1712, he increased the power of the state, he made Prussia the leading military power in Europe and his bold campaigns had great implications for the European political landscape. An absolute monarch in the age of enlightenment, he was a prolific writer, attracted figures such as Voltaire to his court, fostered education and put Berlin firmly on the cultural map. He was much admired by Napoleon and was often romanticised by German historians, becoming a hero for many in united Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries. Others, however, vilified him for aspects such as his militarism and the partition of Poland.
With
Tim Blanning
Emeritus Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge
Katrin Kohl
Professor of German Literature at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Jesus College
And
Thomas Biskup
Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Hull
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b06172j1)
Georgina Howell - Queen of the Desert
Episode 4
The story of Gertrude Bell and her crucial role in the foundation of the state of Iraq.
In 1919 and into 1920, Gertrude became increasingly frustrated by the protracted and ill-informed decisions being taken in Europe about the future of the Middle East.
First published in 2006, Queen of the Desert by Georgina Howell has been reissued - partly to coincide with the Werner Herzog film of the same title, but also to provide the long view on the troubled history of a remarkable country.
Using letters written by Gertrude Bell throughout the period, the book tells the story of an extraordinarily talented and determined woman who has often been overshadowed by her more famous friend, T.E. Lawrence.
Read by Sylvestra le Touzel and Deborah Findlay (the letters)
Abridged and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b060bctl)
Fiona Shaw, Deborah Moggach, Bridget Christie
Fiona Shaw on directing The Rape of Lucretia for the Glyndebourne Festival. Deborah Moggach on her new novel Something to Hide. Bridget Christie on comedy and feminism. Listener feedback on the 2015 Woman's Hour Power List: Influencers. Jenni Murray presents.
Presenter: Jenni Murray
Producer: Eleanor Garland.
THU 10:45 Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City (b060blkx)
Significant Others
Episode 4
Mrs Madrigal's appeal to the authorities to save her beloved Barbary Lane steps have been turned down. Dede and D'Or are having different experiences at Wimminwood and Michael gets caught up in the difficulties Mary Ann and Brian are having and has to dish out a few home truths .
Lin Coghlan dramatises stories from Significant Others and Sure of You by Armistead Maupin from his Tales of the City series .Set in San Francisco in the 80's .
Produced by Charlotte Riches
Directed in Salford by Susan Roberts.
THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (b060bctq)
Escape from Boko Haram
Kate Adie introduces correspondents' stories. Today Tulip Mazumdar hears the story of a 17 year old girl, now escaped from Boko Haram; Tom Burridge meets an old Ukrainian woman, who is proud of her country's Soviet past but wants Putin to leave Ukraine alone; Fanny Durville takes her family on an outing in Tunisia, the day after the shootings, and struggles with the contrast between the friendliness and the tension; Gary O'Donoghue examines how Obama has gone from lame duck to soaring eagle in a week; and Bethany Bell discovers some Hapsburg nostalgia on the train to Trieste.
THU 11:30 Looking For Charlie Williams (b060bctv)
Ian McMillan sets out on a personal quest to find out more about the late professional footballer turned TV comedy star, Charlie Williams, who rose to national fame in the early 1970s with appearances on The Comedians and The Golden Shot, delivering his trademark 'me old flower' in his broad Yorkshire accent.
At 14, Charlie went down the pit and excelled at football, playing for the Upton Colliery team. This led to a successful career as a professional footballer in the 1950s when he made 151 appearances for Doncaster Rovers and was one of the first black footballers in the country.
After retiring from football, he turned his hand to singing in the local Working Men's Clubs. He soon realised his in-between song banter was going down much better than his singing and a new career in comedy was born. He made his TV debut in 1971, starring in the Comedians alongside Bernard Manning and Frank Carson, and had a six month residence at the London Palladium.
Ian talks to Doncaster Rovers' club historian Tony Bluff to find out just why the club's fans voted him 'all time club cult hero' in a 2004 Football Focus poll. He visits Charlie's widow Janice and learns about the day he received his MBE from Prince Charles. We also hear from writer and broadcaster Dotun Adebayo, who wrote and starred in a play based on Charlie, and from Charlie's best mate and one-time agent Neil Crossland.
The combination of a black man with a broad Yorkshire accent and first-hand experience of working class life made Charlie Williams unique. Some say his gags reinforced racial stereotypes of the time, but nevertheless he was a pioneer and role model for a new generation of British black comedians.
Producer: Kellie While
A Smooth Operations production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:00 News Summary (b0606jy3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 Home Front (b060bcv1)
2 July 1915 - Victor Lumley
Victor is home on leave, and hardly expected to have to fight a whole new set of battles.
Written by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Lucy Collingwood
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
THU 12:15 You and Yours (b061bphk)
Garage charges, Gardening for health, Killer high heels
New research shows that women are charged on average £45 more than men when they go to get their car repaired - whether you're a man or a woman we'd like to hear your experience on that.
We join garden designer Rae Wilkinson at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show to celebrate the power of the Healing Garden
Wearing high heels or thin soled shoes for long periods does have its drawbacks - the balls of your feet can become excruciatingly painful. And it has serious consequences - sore, protruding bones just some of the things can happen. It's got a name - Morton's Neuroma . It used to be the case it only affected people in their 40s and upwards but more young people are now suffering with it.
THU 12:57 Weather (b0606jy5)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 13:00 World at One (b061bphm)
Rigorous analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Shaun Ley.
THU 13:45 Me, My Selfie and I: Aimee Fuller's Generation Game (b06172jb)
Episode 4
The recent election was dubbed the 'selfie election'. In the fourth part of her series on selfies, snowboarder Aimee Fuller explores why politicians embraced this new way to meet the voters - from the phenomenon called Millifandom to David Cameron using a selfie stick to take a picture at Pirate FM.
The Economist writer Jeremy Cliffe tells of his experience covering the election and seeing selfies being taken everywhere - but, when he asked those taking them if it would change the way they vote, they tended to say it wouldn't. He explores what role the selfie played, and why politicians embraced it.
Jeremy also discusses the social attitudes of the selfie generation of young people. He says as work has become more insecure and self employment has risen, the autonomy of creating a personal image and brand through selfies and social media is in keeping with the attitudes of this generation. There has also been a decline in the appeal of big monolithic organisations, so young people are less likely to get behind a big political party to declare who they are.
He argues that this generation is more individualistic and more at home with building an identity online.
Katrina Sluis of the Photographers Gallery says selfies are part of the process of breaking down barriers between the private and public life, and this also affects institutions.
Producer: Philip Reevell
A Manchester Digital Media production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 14:00 The Archers (b0608n4s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (b060bf63)
Snake Oil
Jim Dillon has what he calls 'Fondue Set Syndrome'. He just can't walk past a bargain - or what he thinks is a bargain - as his long-suffering family and their array of curious and inappropriate birthday and Christmas presents testify! But when Jim is faced with a much more serious and life-threatening diagnosis he starts to investigate alternative cures and remedies to assist his recovery and help him try and control the uncontrollable. From a fungus fed with milk to a Native American sweat lodge in the living room, Jim tries it all. But is Jim in danger of taking things too far and pushing his family away, instead putting his trust in others, some of whom just might not have his best interests at heart?
A new drama from Northern-Irish playwright Abbie Spallen starring Philip Jackson, Pauline McLynn and Georgia Taylor.
THU 15:00 Open Country (b060bf65)
The Lengthsman with Antony Gormley
The Landmark Trust exists to save endangered important buildings and to enable people to inhabit them. For their 50th anniversary they invited one of our most celebrated artists Sir Antony Gormley to create a sculpture at 5 iconic locations across the country. The centre point of these 5 pieces is The Lengthsmans Cottage in Lowsonford which sits on the side of the Stratford-Upon-Avon canal in Warwickshire. Each work of art has been composed in direct response to the landscape which surrounds them and here the figure perches on the very edge of the lock gazing down into the depths of the rushing water as the calm yet industrious life of the canal unfolds below.
Helen Mark meets Sir Antony Gormley as he returns to the site for a final inspection and he explains how for him this figure represents our need to reconnect with our industrial heritage, man's essential drive to make things. As the programme unfolds we hear more about the secret life of the canal, the people who keep it running and the wildlife that live along it. Perhaps an unlikely spot to find the work of such an influential artist, Helen discovers that the canal in fact provides a perfect gallery as those who use it can view and react to the figure as they float by.
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b0606mdg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (b0607247)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b060bf67)
Back to the Future, Amy, Audrey Hepburn, I was Brigitte Bardot's double
With Francine Stock.
Back To The Future composer Alan Silvestri reveals why he's added 15 minutes of music to the original score for a new screening of Back To The Future.
The producer and editor of Amy, James Gay-Rees and Chris King, discuss the skill and ethics of editing a documentary about the life of singer Amy Winehouse, and respond to criticism about the film from her father Mitch.
Antonia Quirke visits the National Portrait Gallery's exhibition about Audrey Hepburn to see if it has changed her mind about an actress that she's always considered over-rated.
The job of Colourist is relatively new but increasingly important in the film industry, and Adam Glasman explains the tricks of his trade.
Listener Alan Wilding reveals his 15 seconds of movie fame - he was Brigitte Bardot's double.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b060bf69)
Aphid-repelling wheat, National Institute for Bioscience, Global map of smell, Parrot mimics
Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire has just finished trials of a new way to repel aphids from wheat. It's a clever system, that takes a gene for a pheromone, called E beta farnesene, from peppermint, and inserts it into wheat. Aphids let off E Beta Farnesene when they are under attack or when a dead bug is detected, and idea was to have the wheat produce the chemical alarm itself. In the lab, the plants had driven aphids away in their droves. But in the field, where controlled lab conditions are not present, there was no measurable reduction. So what's gone wrong? Adam speaks to spoke to plant geneticist to Dr Gia Aradottir who worked on the Rothamsted trial and Professor Mike Bevan of the John Innes Institute.
Top biologists have recently met to launch the National Institutes for Bioscience, the N.I.B, a star-studded partnership of eight great British biological Institutes, such as the Roslin- former home of Dolly the Sheep - and the world's longest running agricultural research station Rothamsted Research. George Freeman MP, Britain's first Minister for Life Sciences, provided a bit of glamour to mark the occasion. Tracey Logan was there to meet the key scientists and to ask the Minister about the ambition and role of the N.I.B.
A team of scientists has just revealed how they've used genetics to scan the peoples of the world - and amazingly of extinct people from prehistory - to see who can smell what. They've used one particular olfactory receptor, called OR7D4, to build up a global map of what people can smell. Adam Rutherford speaks to Professor Matthew Cobb, from Manchester University to discuss how the different peoples of the world - including long extinct humans - smell different things.
Why are parrots such good copycats? A team in Duke University in the US thinks that they have uncovered the exact spot in the brain that gives the parrot this ability. Professor Erich Jarvis studies the genes involved in the structure of bird-brains, and discusses some ideas about how those neurons have developed through a combination of behaviour and genetics.
THU 17:00 PM (b060p84l)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b0606jy8)
02/07/15 Consider air strikes in Syria
The government sets out why Britain should consider air strikes on Syria.
THU 18:30 It's a Fair Cop (b060bf6c)
Series 2
TWOC
Policeman turned comic Alfie Moore asks his audience whether they've ever taken something without the owner's consent (TWOC)?
Series in which the audience makes the policing decisions as Alfie 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 (b060bf6f)
Bert and Carol discuss the Flower and Produce show - Carol gets some advice on what veg to enter and rewards Bert with tea and seed cake. Meanwhile, Christine is moving in with Peggy at the Lodge today and Fallon's Wimbledon Quiz picnics are going down a storm at the Bull.
The Echo reports that the new road plans could be sunk. There's a picture of David on the front page, and also a mention of Elizabeth who's hosting the village fete at Lower Loxley. As he listens to David on the radio, Kenton's bitter that the Bull is relegated to P.13 - he feels stabbed in the back AND front by his siblings. Unlike David, Roy has spotted some negative online reviews for Grey Gables.
David finds Bert in his garden at the bungalow. Bert talks about Freda, pondering on Sikh and Hindu funeral traditions. Much of Bert's flowers and veg have been destroyed by the flood, but the roses are doing well - Freda loved her roses. Bert asks David if Jill has a recipe for seed cake - it's a marvellous thing for helping you think.
THU 19:15 Front Row (b060bf6h)
Manchester International Festival 2015
Musician Damon Albarn and playwright Moira Buffini discuss turning Lewis Carroll's 19th century children's novel, Alice in Wonderland, into a 21st century musical - where it's the internet, not a rabbit hole, that leads Alice into a curious new world.
Tree of Codes is the Manchester International Festival's first ballet commission. It's inspired by a book transformed into an artwork, which in turn was inspired by a collection of short stories. Choreographer Wayne McGregor, artist Olafur Eliasson, and music producer Jamie xx discuss the result of their collaboration and its shape-shifting source.
At the age of 17, Merseyside-born Mark Simpson won both the BBC Young Musician of the Year and BBC/Guardian Young Composer of the year, remaining today the only person to have done so. A decade on, his first oratorio, "The Immortal", receives its world premiere at the Manchester International Festival.
After a decade at the helm of the Manchester International Festival, Alex Poots, the festival's founding CEO and Artistic Director will be stepping down. He talks to John Wilson about getting the festival off the ground and why now is the right time for him to say goodbye.
Presenter: John Wilson
Producer: Ekene Akalawu.
THU 19:45 Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City (b060blkx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 The Report (b060blkz)
Chemsex
Crystal Meth, GHB/GBL and Mephedrone form what some health workers call an 'un-holy trinity' of drugs that together can heighten arousal and strip away inhibitions.
They've become increasingly popular on London's gay scene, and the effects can see some users taking part in weekend-long sex parties, involving multiple partners.
For Radio 4's The Report, Mobeen Azhar speaks to men entrenched in this lifestyle and explores the impact the so-called 'chemsex' scene is having on public health services.
It's a scene where unsafe sex is common and has been cited as a contributing factor in the rising number of HIV infections in London, posing new challenges to those trying to promote the safe sex message.
Such parties are fuelled by technology and smartphone dating apps, which have triggered a social shift where men have moved out of bars and clubs and into private homes - out of reach to sexual health and drug advice services.
A potential solution to help protect those involved in the scene is Pre Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) - the practice of issuing men with HIV medication before they become HIV positive, which studies have shown as an effective means to reduce HIV infection.
PrEp has been championed by the World Health Organisation, saying it could prevent 1 million new HIV infections around the world. Its advocates in Britain suggest it should be made available on-demand as soon as possible - but how affordable is it? And will fears that it will only encourage more unsafe sex prove true?
Presenter: Mobeen Azhar
Producer: Richard Fenton-Smith.
THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (b060bll1)
Burger Battles
The British love fast food. Each year we munch our way through thirty billion pounds worth. On The Bottom Line this week Evan Davis and guests discuss the burgeoning burger market. There are new challengers to the traditional big boys, like Five Guys, who claim to offer better quality burgers and a "casual dining experience." Whilst one old famous brand from the 1970s, Wimpy, is attempting to make a come-back with re-branded restaurants and menu. But what's the recipe for success in this already over-crowded market?
Guests: John Eckbert, Managing Director of Five Guys;
Bruce Layzell, Managing Executive of International Markets at Famous Brands (the South African company who own Wimpy and Steers)
And Martin Breeden, Regional Director of Intu, who own some of Britain's biggest shopping centres.
Producer: Jim Frank.
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b060bf69)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (b060bctg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b060bng2)
Would UK bombing of the Islamic State group change anything on the ground?
Govt appears to be preparing change of stance on Britain's involvement in Syria
THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b060lwts)
True Grit
Episode 4
Narrated by the aging Mattie Ross, True Grit is Mattie's recollection of events, many years earlier, when, as a fourteen year old girl she undertook an unthinkable quest to avenge her father's death...
Mattie's father, Frank Ross, left the family farm near the town of Dardanelle in Yell County, Arkansas, on a trip to buy some ponies, but was tragically never to return. He was shot dead and robbed by Tom Chaney, one of his own workers, who then fled, and is suspected to be hiding out in Indian Territory.
Mattie travels to Fort Smith to arrange for the return of her father's body and to enquire as to what is being done to find her father's killer. Finding the local lawmen disinterested, Mattie resolves to take matters into her own hands and seeks out the toughest deputy U.S. Marshal in the district, one Reuben J. 'Rooster' Cogburn. Although an aging, one-eyed, overweight, trigger-happy, hard-drinking man, Mattie believes Cogburn has 'true grit' and is the man best suited to help her.
Mattie persuades Cogburn to take on the job, and, joined by a Texas Ranger named La Boeuf, the three travel into dark, dangerous Indian country to hunt Chaney down and bring him to justice.
First brought to the big screen in a classic 1969 western starring John Wayne and more recently by the Cohen brothers in a film starring Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit has been abridged for Radio 4 by Doreen Estall, and is read by Nancy Crane.
Produced by Heather Larmour.
THU 23:00 Seekers (b060bng4)
Series 2
The Eight Letter Word
Stuart says something very silly, and Nicola tries to impress Vanessa to gain her confidence.
Matthew Horne, Daniel Mays, Tony Way and Zahra Ahmadi star in the sitcom set in a jobcentre.
Stuart ------ Matthew Horne
Joseph ------ Daniel Mays
Terry ----- Tony Way
Nicola ------ Zahra Ahmadi
Vanessa ----- Natalie Walter
Gary Probert ----- Steve Oram
Written by Steve Burge.
Producer: Victoria Lloyd.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2015.
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (b060bng6)
Sean Curran reports from Westminster where the Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, says MPs should consider the case for the RAF to attack IS extremists in Syria. And Labour and the SNP call plans to strengthen the voting rights of English MPs an outrage.
In the Lords, a leading human rights lawyer, Lord Lester, describes the Conservatives as a "government of zealots" for threatening to "tear up" the Human Rights Act. And a Conservative peers calls for a Constitutional Convention.
FRIDAY 03 JULY 2015
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b0606jz6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b06172j1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b0606jz8)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b0606jzb)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b0606jzd)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b0606jzg)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b060pdqr)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with the Rev Bob Fyffe, General Secretary of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b060bnrt)
Calls to help EU dairy industry, Ramblers and historic rights of way, Lavender growing
EU farming body calls for help for struggling dairy farmers. The pan-EU farmers union, Copa-Cogeca, says many farmers are struggling because of falling prices and early subsidy payments would help with cash flow.
Ramblers win the right to have an ancient right of way reopened. The Court of Appeal's verdict relates to a two hundred year old Enclosure Act, and twenty years of campaigning on the part of a veteran rambler.
Also, lavender growing in the Cotswolds, where one farmer finds that it's more lucrative to cultivate than cereals.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Mark Smalley.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dx98q)
Little Auk
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Martin Hughes-Games presents the Little Auk. Little auks are black and white relatives of the puffin but only about half the size. They're one of the most numerous seabirds in the world, with around twelve million pairs of birds. In autumn and early winter we see them in the UK as they head south into the North Sea.
FRI 06:00 Today (b060brhr)
Morning news and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather, Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b0606vtx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b06172qn)
Georgina Howell - Queen of the Desert
Episode 5
The story of Gertrude Bell and her crucial role in the foundation of the state of Iraq.
With the new King, Faisal, safely installed, Gertrude's energies turned to the establishment of a museum in Baghdad to house the extraordinary collection of artefacts that chronicled Iraq's ancient history.
First published in 2006, Queen of the Desert by Georgina Howell has been reissued - partly to coincide with the Werner Herzog film of the same title, but also to provide the long view on the troubled history of a remarkable country.
Using letters written by Gertrude Bell throughout the period, the book tells the story of an extraordinarily talented and determined woman who has often been overshadowed by her more famous friend, T.E. Lawrence.
Read by Sylvestra le Touzel and Deborah Findlay (the letters)
Abridged and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b060brht)
Baroness Valerie Amos, Why women say sorry, Women and farming
Baroness Valerie Amos on becoming the UK's first-ever female black leader of a university. She will take up her post as Director of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in September 2015.
In the next of our series retracing Sylvia Pankhurst's steps, we look at farming. Today, much of arable farming is done by machine. If there is any hands-on work, it is mostly carried out by migrant workers from Eastern Europe. Emma Barnett went to Wright's Lettuce Farm in Lancashire to help with the planting. Karen Sayer, Professor of History at Leeds Trinity talks about women and manual work.
Cathy Rentzenbrink's younger brother Matty was just 16 in 1990 when he was knocked down by a hit and run driver. He had emergency brain surgery, but was left in a persistent vegetative state for eight years, until the family sought legal permission to allow him to die. Cathy joins Jenni to talk about her memoir 'The Last Act of Love'.
Women and apologising - Writer and comedian Viv Groskop discusses why women say "sorry," the subject of her stand-up routine at Edinburgh Fringe with Louise Mullany, Associate Professor of Socio-Linguistics, Nottingham University.
Presenter: Jenni Murray
Producer: Rebecca Myatt.
FRI 10:41 Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City (b060bwdz)
Significant Others
Episode 5
Armistead Maupin's beloved characters come to the end of the 80s as this series closes. Mary Ann has decided to move to New York. Having Thack around will ease Michael's loss back in San Francisco . But what about Brian ? Faced with losing the wooden steps outside Barbary Lane Mrs Madrigal resorts to chains. The final part of Lin Coghlan's dramatisation of Significant Others and Sure of You.
Produced by Charlotte Riches
Directed by Susan Roberts.
FRI 10:55 The Listening Project (b060brhw)
Phyllis and Werner - Love and Liberation
Fi Glover introduces a couple whose 67 year marriage shows that love can heal the deepest divides; Phyllis married the German medic whom she met during the Occupation. 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 11:00 Lost Children of the Holocaust (b060brhy)
Episode 2
Alex Last finds out what happened to the 12 children named in a series of BBC radio appeals on behalf of a group of Holocaust survivors stranded as orphans in post-war Europe.
FRI 11:30 Gloomsbury (b060bs04)
Series 3
One Day My Prince Will Come
The visit of the Prince of Wales to Sizzlinghurst to admire Vera's garden has ardent Monarchist, Mrs Gosling, in a tizzy. It also leaves Henry on edge. and suspecting everyone of trying to assassinate the Prince.
With good cause it would seem.
Gosling's rampant Republicanism and grandmother's shot gun means that Henry has no choice but to lock the gardener up in the potting shed. Then two gun-toting Americans pop in unannounced and brandish their weapons on the front lawn - the poet Gertrude Klein and the socialite Mrs Wallis Simpleton.
Henry manages to disarm them just as the Prince makes his entrance. But when the Prince of Wales makes a play for Vera, asking her out on a clandestine date to to the theatre, Henry regrets getting rid of the guns.
If the Prince continues to threaten his marriage, Henry might have to assassinate the Prince of Wales himself.
Produced by Jamie Rix
A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:00 News Summary (b0606jzs)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Home Front (b060bs06)
3 July 1915 - Howard Argent
Howard throws caution to the wind.
Written by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Lucy Collingwood
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
FRI 12:15 You and Yours (b060bs08)
Health Screening, RSPCA-approved food, The Library of Everything, Supercomplaints
There are hundreds of private health clinics that offer 'check-ups' with all kinds of blood tests, ultrasound and even MRI and CT scans which are meant to give you 'peace of mind'. But some doctors say while some tests can be useful, many are not, and could end up doing us more harm than good. So what should you know before you consider paying for a health test?
If you've got a poor credit rating, but need to buy goods on tick you may find your only option is to turn to a new kind of card. It's called a credit builder card. The catch is the APR on these cards can be as high as fifty percent. So are they really a good option for someone with a low credit score?
It's ten years since the Citizens Advice Bureau made a super-complaint on billing in the energy industry. Super-complaints are made by certain watchdog organisations on behalf of consumers, about a market that is or appears to be harming the interests of consumers. But a decade later CAB say little has improved in that time, so what is the point of a super-complaint?
The RSPCA's Freedom Food label tells shoppers if the food they are buying has come from animals that have been well looked after - so why is it disappearing?
We visit the library where you can borrow everything from power tools to a computer game.
FRI 12:57 Weather (b0606jzz)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 13:00 World at One (b060pdqw)
A minute of silence marks a week since the terrorist attack in Tunisia.
As the clock counts down to the referendum in Greece, Mark Mardell reports from Athens.
And should male MPs be allowed a 'man bag' in the Chamber?
FRI 13:45 Me, My Selfie and I: Aimee Fuller's Generation Game (b06172qq)
Episode 5
In the final part of her exploration of the selfie phenomenon, snowboarder Aimee Fuller describes how she will be using social media as she sets out to compete for a place at the next Winter Olympics. As she looks ahead, she also considers what she will share with fans - and what she would like to keep to herself.
Birmingham University Business School lecturer David Houghton explains how photographs of the self are viewed when posted frequently and how attitudes change depending on what is posted and how often. He explains the role of narcissism in social media and the difference between 'look at me' selfies and photos taken at tourist locations to explain where people are.
Nina Nesbitt is a singer-songwriter who uses social media to connect with her fans, including via a live video stream, and appreciates the way she gets feedback and encouragement from fans. She talks with her fans on Twitter most days and says it helps her when she is recording.
Aimee explains her views on what should be posted online - she posts in order to convey herself - and how there is a difference between 'social media Aimee' and her ordinary, day-to-day life. She talks about the people who criticise photographs taken and the drawbacks of social media.
Producer: Philip Reevell
A Manchester Digital Media production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (b060bf6f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (b060bwdj)
Rumpole
Rumpole and the Portia of Our Chambers
Rumpole comes close to giving up the law when forced to consider the path his life has taken by a combination of his attraction to his pupil Phillida, an unsettling case involving an Irish terrorist and a devoted father and son, and a visit from an old flame of Hilda’s.
But the love shown by a client’s son for his father convinces Rumpole that he can’t simply quit as husband, parent - or as Old Bailey hack.
The question of what makes a good parent runs throughout the whole episode, with Rumpole asking himself if he’s turning into a bad father, especially in comparison with his client.
Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Rumpole in a story written by John Mortimer and adapted by Richard Stoneman.
Cast
Horace Rumpole ..… Benedict Cumberbatch
Hilda Rumpole ….. Jasmine Hyde
Phillida Trant ….. Cathy Sara
Boxey Horne ….. Stephen Critchlow
Matthew Culp ..… Samuel Reader
Directed by Marilyn Imrie
Produced by Catherine Bailey
A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b060bwdl)
Hampton Court
Eric Robson hosts the show from the Hampton Court Flower Show. Chris Beardshaw, Pippa Greenwood, and Matthew Wilson make up the panel.
Produced by Howard Shannon
Assistant Producer: Hannah Newton
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:45 Rapunzel (b060bwdn)
A Shaggy Bob Story
The second of three specially-commissioned tales by Julie Mayhew - her first stories for radio - taking their inspiration not only from the Rapunzel story made familiar by the Brothers Grimm, but also from some of the traditional European tales that influenced them.
In modern settings, each story features a girl with a tall tower of her own and the possibilities of an open window...
Episode 2: A Shaggy Bob Story
A story of very long hair - and head lice.
Julie Mayhew has written three plays for radio, including A Shoebox Of Snow which was nominated for Best Drama at the BBC Audio Drama Awards in 2012. Her first novel, Red Ink (2013), was nominated for the 2014 CILIP Carnegie Medal. Her second, The Big Lie, will be published in the summer of 2015. Julie is a founder and host of the short story cabaret, The Berko Speakeasy.
Reader: Julie Mayhew
Produced by Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 16:00 Last Word (b060pdqy)
Sir Nicholas Winton, Val Doonican, Nek Chand, James Salter, Lady Rozelle Raynes
Matthew Bannister on
Sir Nicholas Winton who saved 669 children from the advancing Nazis in Czechoslovakia.
Also the Irish singer Val Doonican - known for his cardigans and rocking chair - he was sometimes called Britain's Bing Crosby.
The Indian artist Nek Chand who created the extraordinary Rock Garden of Chandigarh. Jarvis Cocker pays tribute.
The novelist and former fighter pilot James Salter
And Lady Rozelle Raynes, the daughter of an Earl who became a stoker on a tug boat during the war.
FRI 16:30 Feedback (b061039t)
Roger Bolton looks at the battle for control of language.
More than 120 MPs have written a letter to the BBC's Director General calling for an end to use of the name "Islamic State" in news reporting. David Cameron is among those calling for a change of terminology, saying that many Muslims recoil from the name. Radio 4 and World Service listeners tell us what they think the BBC should call the group and consider whether a change in terminology would weaken Islamic State, or weaken the BBC's impartiality.
There are also concerns about the terminology used by the BBC when reporting immigration. Roger investigates whether listeners' concerns are about inaccuracy or the potential for stoking animosity.
The biggest job in BBC Radio Comedy - the host of The News Quiz - has gone to Miles Jupp. But what do our listeners think of the new appointment, and can Miles fill Sandi Toksvig's tiny shoes?
Miles is a household name for Radio 4 listeners but BBC Radio is also on the lookout for new talent with the 2015 BBC Radio New Comedy Awards. Roger speaks to Marcus Brigstocke and Angela Barnes to find out what it takes to make it in the world of radio comedy.
And why, why, why, did Tom Jones' song Delilah offend one of Feedback's listeners? Roger speaks with Jeff Smith, Head of Music at BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music, to find out how the BBC approaches older songs covering potentially controversial themes.
Producer: Katherine Godfrey
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (b060bwdq)
Harry and Clive - Men of War
Fi Glover introduces two Jerseymen who joined up in World War II, recalling their return to the island in 1946, and how their experience of war changed them forever. 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 (b061039w)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b0606k02)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The Now Show (b060bwds)
Series 46
Episode 1
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week's news through stand-up and sketches. This week the cast are joined by alternative comedy legend Alexei Sayle and Political Editor for Sky News Faisal Islam.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (b060bwdv)
There are pictures of Adam's herbal ley on the village website. Jennifer and Kate explain Tai Chi to a bemused Brian. Kate sits Brian and Jennifer down and explains her business plan. It's a holistic therapy centre/ retreat with treatments to detox and unwind. Brian upsets Kate by laying into her figures and criticising her for having no staying power with anything. He's not prepared to invest. Jennifer agrees he's right. Debbie's visiting in two weeks. Brian hopes she'll kick Adam's daft ideas into touch.
Peggy and Jill discuss the Flower and Produce show, Tony and Pat's retirement and also Christine moving in with Peggy. Rob has been a real knight in shining armour helping, says Peggy.
Jill admits she feels unsettled by the Fairbrothers. She remembers Elizabeth's affair with their father Robin, but the big thing troubling Jill is the ghost of Grace - Phil's first wife. Jill thinks about the particular plot of land the Fairbrothers have taken for their geese - it had significance for Jill and Phil.
Phoebe and Alex have carefully planned their evening alone together at Home Farm. But Kate walks in on them having sex and throws Alex out. The moment's ruined.
FRI 19:15 Front Row (b060bwdx)
Brian Wilson biopic Love and Mercy, Orson Welles play, The art of Liotard, UK song map
With Samira Ahmed.
Love and Mercy is a biopic of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. It follows Wilson through the 60s, at the height of his fame, and the 80s, when he suffered a nervous breakdown and was in the care of controversial therapist Dr Eugene Landy. Mark Eccleston gives his verdict on the film and discusses the challenges actor's face when playing rock stars.
The play Orson's Shadow fictionalises the details of a reported clash of egos between Orson Welles and Laurence Olivier during the rehearsals of a theatrical production of Ionesco's Rhinoceros in 1960, which also starred Joan Plowright. The play was to be Orson Welles' last work as a theatre director, and coincided with the breakdown of Olivier's marriage to Vivienne Leigh. Playwright Austin Pendleton discusses how working with Orson Welles on the film Catch 22 inspired his portrayal of him.
Jean-Étienne Liotard was an artist renowned throughout Europe in the age of Mozart and Casanova for the detail and honesty of his portraits, but he is almost unknown in Britain. The Scottish National Gallery aims to put that right with the first major exhibition of his work here. Moira Jeffrey reviews.
When Natasha Solomons was writing her novel, The Song Collector, she found out all about the art of song collecting and this duly inspired her to set up The Great British Song Map, a communal project to collect songs and pin them to an online map, accessible to the public. She tells Samira about the project and the novel
Producer: Ella-mai Robey.
FRI 19:45 Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City (b060bwdz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:41 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b060bxpg)
Chris Grayling MP, Sir Peter Kendall, Khalid Mahmood MP, Vicky Pryce
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from Weobley Village Hall in Herefordshire with the Leader of the House of Commons, Chris Grayling MP; Sir Peter Kendall, former President of the National Farmers Union (NFU) and the current chair of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board; Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr Khalid Mahmood MP; and the Greek-born British economist, and former Joint Head of the United Kingdom's Government Economic Service, Vicky Pryce.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b060bxpj)
Adam Gopnik: Family Reunions
Adam Gopnik's ten-year family reunion brings into focus the passage of time.
"The inescapable material of any family reunion, British or American, Jewish or Celtic, is always the same: each offering a hair-raising or hair-losing seminar on the effects of time on the human body and soul, and especially on the difference between aging and growing."
Producer: Sheila Cook.
FRI 21:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b060bxpl)
29 June to 3 July 1915
Canadian Troops celebrated their Dominion Day and a long awaited reunion is planned.
Written by Sarah Daniels
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 (b0606k04)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b061039y)
Eve of the crucial Greek referendum
Tim Franks in Athens reports from both the No and Yes campaigns
FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b060lwyz)
True Grit
Episode 5
Narrated by the aging Mattie Ross, True Grit is Mattie's recollection of events, many years earlier, when, as a fourteen year old girl she undertook an unthinkable quest to avenge her father's death...
Mattie's father, Frank Ross, left the family farm near the town of Dardanelle in Yell County, Arkansas, on a trip to buy some ponies, but was tragically never to return. He was shot dead and robbed by Tom Chaney, one of his own workers, who then fled, and is suspected to be hiding out in Indian Territory.
Mattie travels to Fort Smith to arrange for the return of her father's body and to enquire as to what is being done to find her father's killer. Finding the local lawmen disinterested, Mattie resolves to take matters into her own hands and seeks out the toughest deputy U.S. Marshal in the district, one Reuben J. 'Rooster' Cogburn. Although an aging, one-eyed, overweight, trigger-happy, hard-drinking man, Mattie believes Cogburn has 'true grit' and is the man best suited to help her.
Mattie persuades Cogburn to take on the job, and, joined by a Texas Ranger named La Boeuf, the three travel into dark, dangerous Indian country to hunt Chaney down and bring him to justice.
First brought to the big screen in a classic 1969 western starring John Wayne and more recently by the Cohen brothers in a film starring Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit has been abridged for Radio 4 by Doreen Estall, and is read by Nancy Crane.
Produced by Heather Larmour.
FRI 23:00 A Good Read (b0608h7q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (b06103b0)
Mark D'Arcy and the BBC parliamentary team report from Westminster.
FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (b060bxpn)
Frank and Hubertus – Germans in Guernsey
Fi Glover introduces a conversation between two younger Germans who hope that their countrymen's Occupation of the Channel Islands will be forgiven, but never forgotten. 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.
Producer: Marya Burgess
First broadcast on Radio 4 in 2015.