The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
Glasgow & Russian gangs: Laurie Taylor explores their origins, organisation and meaning in two strikingly different cultures. He talks to Alistair Fraser, Lecturer in Criminology and Sociology at the University of Glasgow, whose fieldwork with young Glaswegian men, demonstrates that gangland life is inextricably bound together with perceptions of masculinity and identity and the quest to find a place in the community. They're joined by Svetlana Stephenson, a Reader in Sociology at London Metropolitan University, who found that Russian gangs, which saw a spectacular rise in the post Soviet, market economy in the 1990s, are substantially incorporated into their communities, with bonds and identities that bridge the worlds of illegal enterprise and legal respectability.
Alistair Fraser was in the final shortlist of six for this year's BSA/Thinking Allowed Ethnography Award.
Spiritual reflection to start the day with the former moderator of the Church of Scotland's General Assembly, the Very Rev John Chalmers.
Cheap meat and superbugs, Chelsea Flower show trends, is the customer always right?
Does the pressure to produce cheap meat fuel the rise in antibiotic resistant superbugs? Tom Heap tells Charlotte Smith about his investigations for tonight's Panorama.
The Chelsea flower show begins tomorrow. Show gardens, champagne and beautiful plants everywhere you look. But it's more than just a day out as the themes on display prove highly influential, inspiring gardeners and growers everywhere. Howard Shannon has been to London's Covent Garden Flower Market in the company of horticulturalist Guy Barter to find out how traders anticipate the Flower Show's trends, so they can meet the public's demand.
Is the customer always right? Over the past decade, public demand for transparency about what we eat and drink has soared. And all this week on Farming Today, we're looking at the impact and influence of consumers on the food supply chain - from farmers and growers right through to retailers. So we're joining with radio 4's daily consumer show You & Yours to find out what shoppers want. Presenter Winifred Robinson tells Charlotte that really it all comes down to the bottom line
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
David Attenborough presents the story of the pied flycatcher. The pied flycatcher is the voice of western woods, as much a part of the scenery as lichen-covered branches, mossy boulders and tumbling streams. When they arrive here in spring from Africa the black and white males, which are slightly smaller than a house sparrow, take up territories in the woodland and sing their lilting arpeggios from the tree canopy.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
On Start the Week Andrew Marr talks to the artist Cornelia Parker about the secrets revealed in found objects. Parker's latest exhibition at the Foundling Museum is inspired by the 18th Century tokens left with babies by their mothers. Simon Armitage finds a new way of telling the medieval poem Pearl, an allegorical story of grief and lost love. Archaeologist Cyprian Broodbank explains how Must Farm, the first landscape-scale investigation of deep Fenland, is transforming our understanding of Bronze Age life, while British Museum curator Aurelia Masson-Berghoff celebrates the finding of two lost Egyptian cities submerged at the mouth of the Nile for over a thousand years.
Aarathi Prasad explores the ancient and modern in Indian medicine. Read by Sudha Bhuchar.
Indian Medicine is a fascinating mix of the ancient and the modern. From Ayurvedic treatments, which predate the Common Era, to the allopathic (Western) medicine which now operates in parallel. Aarathi Prasad takes us through the myriad medicinal worlds - from a bonesetters' clinic in Hyderabad, where breaks but not fractures are reset, via a shrine in the Dharavi megaslum (just outside of Mumbai) where the goddess Kali rules, to a fish doctor in Secunderabad who makes patients swallow live fish and a remarkable neuroscientist, Pawan Sinha, whose venture 'Project Prakash' has helped thousands of Indian children to see for the first time.
Aarathi Prasad is a writer and geneticist. Her PhD was in molecular genetics at Imperial College and she is currently based at University College, London. Prasad has written for The Guardian, The Telegraph and Prospect Magazine, and her first book, Like A Virgin: How Science is redesigning the rules Of Sex, was published in 2012. She has written and presented TV and radio programmes, including Rewinding the Menopause and Quest for Virgin Birth for Radio 4, and Brave New World with Stephen Hawking for Channel 4 and the Discovery Channel.
Film director Toni Myers on her latest project Beautiful Planet showing earth as seen from the International Space Station. She looks back at a career that's spanned fifty years.
A look behind the scenes in the criminal justice system - what protection is there for vulnerable witnesses? We hear from two Registered Intermediaries, Jo Parton and Nicola Lewis.
Can we change ourselves and the way we live if we want to enough? Polly Morland, author of Metamorphosis, has interviewed 19 individuals who have made significant changes to their lives. She describes what the experience has taught her about the mechanisms of human change.
Sandie Okoro is one of the City's most influential women and kick-starts our third series of The Chain. Who was her inspiration?
For more than three decades, Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series has blazed a trail through popular culture-from ground-breaking newspaper serial to classic novel. Radio 4 are dramatising the full series of the Tales novels for the very first time.
Mandy was shocked to discover how much the funeral for her ex-husband was going to cost. But she was also determined that her three children should not be forced to carry the cost alone. Matt the eldest is her carer, and legally liable for all costs, but his carer's allowance was never going to cover the costs - embalming, cremation, flowers, the hearse. So the idea of a fundraising day at the local pub slowly emerged. But despite the best efforts of the community, Mandy and Matt still struggle to settle the bill.
Grace Dent presents one family's struggle to grieve for their dead father while dealing with the spiralling price of his death.
Malcolm and Ramesh's relationship steps up a gear, and Dave dips his toes into the delight of online dating apps.
The staff are back for their tireless quest to bring nice-price custard creams and cans of coke with Arabic writing on them to an ungrateful nation. Ramesh Mahju has built it up over the course of over 30 years and is a firmly entrenched, friendly presence in the local area. He is joined by his shop sidekick, Dave.
Then of course there are Ramesh's sons Sanjay and Alok, both surly and not particularly keen on the old school approach to shopkeeping, but natural successors to the business. Ramesh is keen to pass all his worldly wisdom onto them - whether they like it or not!
Ramesh ...... Sanjeev Kohli
Dave ...... Donald McLeary
Sanjay ...... Omar Raza
Alok ...... Susheel Kumar
Malcolm ...... Mina Anwar
Hilly ...... Kate Brailsford
Mrs Birkett ...... Stewart Cairns
On this day in 1916, the Devon and Exeter Gazette advertised the training of women in the lighter branches of farm work. And Lord Colville takes his daughter to the theatre.
A Shakespeare quote is hidden in each Home Front episode that is set in 1916. These were first broadcast in 2016, the 400th anniversary year of the playwright's death. Can you spot them all?
We investigate why nearly two thirds of claimants of Personal Independence Payments are successful when they appeal the decision at independent tribunals. The Shadow Minister for Disabled People, Debbie Abrahams, joins us.
Big cosmetics companies are reporting a surge in sales of makeup. We speak to beauty fans and Make-Up Artist Lisa Eldridge about why we're spending more.
In a week-long partnership with Radio 4's Farming Today, we report on how Dairy Farmers are having to diversify to make other products than just produce milk.
Charities are spending 20% more on TV Advertising now than two years ago. In light of the recent bad publicity, we discuss if they're spending the money wisely.
And, we have the latest news on the sale of BHS and look at where its customers would go if it does disappear from the High Street.
The President of the World Bank tells us that the biggest threat to developing countries is if the UK leaves the EU.
Treasury analysis released today shows that up to 820 000 jobs could be lost if Britain votes to leave the EU. We examine the Treasury's modelling, and Treasury Minister Harriet Baldwin supports the outlook. Cabinet minister and Leave campaigner Chris Grayling disputes the findings.
And Manchester United have sacked manager Louis van Gaal, despite the team winning the FA Cup this week.
There's something reassuringly eternal and inevitable-sounding about 'this England', as John of Gaunt famously describes it in Shakespeare's Richard II. He says it was, 'Built by Nature'. And of course England does have a landscape that was shaped by nature, but 'this realm' - the kingdom, England as a political entity - is, and already was in Gaunt's time, a human construction.
That being the case, Helen Castor asks where was England made, and who made it? And the answers come back - in its undersung middle parts, by Midlanders. Though we tend to think of it in terms of North and South, England was in significant part dreamt into being in the imaginations of the men and women of the country's heartland, harvested in its intensively laboured enclosures, forged in the fiery industrial furnaces of the Midlands.
In this first programme, Helen examines the conventional idea that England's history as a single, indivisible unit began in Wessex, precursor of the modern English South, under King Alfred. Major sources for early English history - including the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, written in the South - underscore this notion. But actually much of the work essential to unification happened in the kingdom of Mercia, precursor of the modern Midlands. It's just as well that the Staffordshire Hoard recently dug itself out of the earth after a millennium and more, in order to refocus historical attention. The Hoard, consisting of over 1,500 items, was discovered in a field a few miles south-west of Lichfield in Staffordshire in 2009 and offers irrefutable proof of the power and influence of the Midlands in the medieval world.
by Joseph Wilde. Unsettling drama set in the near future.
When a couple discover that they can't have a healthy baby naturally, Zenith Genomics seems to offer the solution: they can create a perfect, bespoke child, with every gene hand-picked. For a price. But the parents soon find that perfection brings its own problems...
A dark fable about parental expectation and the pressures of parenting in a competitive and commodified world.
Anita .... Laura dos Santos
Tom .... Joseph Kloska
Dr Ahmed .... Seeta Indrani
Beth .... Amy-Jayne Leigh
Mr Dean .... Ewan Bailey
Writer .... Joseph Wilde
Director .... Abigail le Fleming
Joseph is a young writer for stage, screen and radio. His breakout play CUDDLES was originally produced in 2013 and revived in 2015 for a UK tour and New York transfer. Joseph has also written plays for Hightide Festival Theatre and Ovalhouse, and in 2014 he worked as an assistant director at the Royal Shakespeare Company. His first radio play THE LOVING BALLAD OF CAPTAIN BATEMAN won the 2014 Imison Award, and for television, he currently writes for DOCTORS and completed the CASUALTY shadow scheme in 2015.
Steve Punt hosts the battle of wits as three students from the University of Chester take on their professors.
A funny and dynamic quiz show with specialist subjects including Archaeology, English and Computer Science and questions ranging from looms to Lemmy via Oscar Wilde and Microsoft Windows.
Food writer Diana Henry has just collected a James Beard Award in America for her latest book 'A Bird in the Hand'. Straight from the plane she joined Sheila Dillon at the Bristol Food Connections Festival.
In Part 1 of the interview she shared about growing up in Antrim, how a revelatory French exchange fuelled her excitement about cooking and starting out in TV. She shared works by Naguib Mahfouz and Seamus Heaney.
In this second part, she shares more of her chosen excerpts on food - including memoirs, online journalism and restaurant reviews - and explains what each of the authors bring that inspires and excites her.
The podcast including both parts of this interview are available from this programme page.
In the 1970s the Spanish tourist board was happy to use flamenco, the traditional dance of the south, as a way to tempt chilly northerners on to the beaches on the Costa del Sol. And it worked - giving a much needed economic boost to an ailing economy. Back home, in Brighton and Bremen alike, crumpled posters featuring swirling skirts were rescued from luggage and left in upstairs bedrooms along with a raffia donkey stuffed with dates.
Behind the swirl of skirts, however, was a dictatorship which despised the gitanos, or gypsies, who refused to give up republican beliefs, leading many into exile. A tame version of flamenco was the one delivered to foreigners - joining the clichéd image of Spain on the shelf next to the castanets.
So did real flamenco survive Franco's dictatorship? It's a puzzle Chris Stewart, author of the best-selling series of books about his life as a sheep-shearer in Spain, and ex-member of Genesis, sets out to unravel on the streets of Granada.
As a young man Chris left the UK to join a flamenco guitar class in Seville. He quickly realised his skills as a guitarist were lacking, but fell under the spell of Spain, and flamenco for ever, returning to live there as a farmer 27 years ago.
Now he takes Radio 4 listeners on a trail through the scorching white alleyways of the Albaicin, into back room bars and caves, to find out how the music most powerfully identified with the gitanos, is now exported throughout the world. There are now more flamenco classes in Japan than in Spain. The music has made a come back, although gitano life is still often one of the outsider. Local prisons contain significantly high proportions of the gitanos, although the authorities allow flamenco workshops for those in jail as a basic human right, whilst families still pass down their skills from generation to generation.
Chris meets the youngest in a long line of gypsy guitarists - Juan Habichuela Nieto performing in the open air courtyard of the Alhambra; the much lauded singer Juan Pinilla; the dancer Chua Alba, who also teaches his own daughter Chloe; the grand old man of Sacramonte, Curro Albaicin; and learns the poetry of flamenco from Steven Nightingale. Drinking more red wine than a wise man should n a hot night, he listens to the wavering song of a 99 year old Juan Mesa, accompanied by Alvaro, his 19 year old accompanist, in the dust riddled guitar shop of Rafa Moreno; before bumping into the proud bohemian, the gypsy singer, Cristobal Osorio, under the stars, concluding that flamenco is indeed the 'Blues of Europe'.
The Catholic Church still affirms the doctrine of original sin. For more than 1,500 years the Church has maintained that the sin of Adam in the Garden of Eden was passed on to every subsequent human being. This meant that every baby was born bad, with its inherent human nature corrupted and attracted to sin. This was not a marginal teaching; it has underpinned Christianity. Ernie Rea and guests discuss the religious, social and cultural legacy of the doctrine of original sin.
David Cameron says a Treasury assessment of the impact of a UK exit from the EU shows it would be a "self-destruct option". Leave campaigners call it "deeply-biased propaganda".
Referendum Campaign Broadcast by the Vote Leave campaign for the Referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union on 23rd June 2016.
Nicholas Parsons and guests return for the 75th series of the panel show where participants must try to speak for 60 seconds without hesitation, deviation or repetition. No repetition? That's no small order after nearly 50 years.
Paul Merton, Josie Lawrence, Alexei Sayle and Graham Norton join host Nicholas Parsons and the topics on the cards include Clock-watching, Cardigan Bay, and A Hot Potato.
Hayley Sterling blows the whistle.
Tony phones Pat to tell her about the new baby. The manager of the mother and baby unit can take pictures for the family. The baby has the toy rabbit with him that Pat sent up. Helen is having difficulty breastfeeding. It's hard to relax when she knows a guard is sitting outside. She thinks she should feed the baby with a bottle but Peggy encourages her to keep trying. Tony thinks the baby looks like Pat's father while Peggy thinks he's all Archer. Helen thinks he looks like Rob.
Kirsty takes lunch out to Tom. She is helping to staff the shop when it re-opens on Friday. The farm is stretched with no Jazzer and no Tony. Tom sees he has no choice but to get rid of the pigs. They talk about what happened between them. Tom apologises to Kirsty for leaving her at the altar and running away. Kirsty accepts his apology and reminds him that it was her mistake as well.
Peggy and Tony have lunch while Helen rests. Tony notices that Helen doesn't seem to be very interested in the baby. Peggy says it may take time for her to bond. They need to keep telling her the baby is hers as much as Rob's.
Fallon tells Kirsty about the party at Grange Farm to celebrate Emma and Ed's first wedding anniversary. Ed wrote Emma a poem; it was sweet but not very good. There was drinking and dancing and now Clarrie is really worried because there's a huge crack in one of the walls. Kirsty and Fallon discuss Tom and Jazzer's falling out and plot to talk sense into both of them.
Russell T Davies, Love and Friendship review, Rufus Norris, Thelma and Louise 25 years on
Russell T Davies first encountered A Midsummer Night's Dream as an 11 year old cast in the role of Bottom. Now the man who relaunched Dr Who and who has been described as the saviour of British television drama, discusses his desire to make his own production of Shakespeare's most exuberant play for TV with Kirsty Lang.
Jane Austen is back on the big screen - this time based on her novella Lady Susan and adapted on film as Love and Friendship, starring Kate Beckinsale. The scheming Lady Susan Vernon dedicates herself to a hunt for a husband both for herself and her daughter Frederica, with implacable determination. Viv Groskop reviews.
Rufus Norris, the artistic director of the National Theatre in London, talks about his new production of The Threepenny Opera. With a new translation by Simon Stephens, who also adapted The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, it stars Rory Kinnear as the amoral, antiheroic criminal Macheath, and Haydn Gwynne as the vengeful Mrs Peachum.
On the eve of the 25th anniversary since the release of Ridley Scott's road movie Thelma & Louise - starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis - the novelist, game designer and self-professed feminist, Naomi Alderman celebrates the cult classic.
Winifred Robinson has returned to Bradford every year to report on mothers like Ruba, who is now 27. When they first met Ruba had a son, Hassam, and had just given birth to a little girl, Alishbah. Tragically both children were diagnosed with a rare condition, I-cell disease and have since died. Ruba is pregnant again and Winifred talks to her about genetic screening and the difficult choices she must make. She is married to her cousin and there is a one in four chance of her next baby being born with this fatal condition.
Researchers in Bradford have documented the incidence of genetic abnormalities linked to cousin marriage, which doubles the risk of passing on the recessive genes that lead to abnormalities. Cystic fibrosis is the one we all know about, where two healthy parents carry a recessive gene: in Bradford doctors have identified more than 200 rare conditions. Data collected by the British Paediatric Surveillance Unit has shown since 1997 there have been 902 British children born with neurodegenerative conditions, with 8% of these in Bradford, which only has 1% of the population.
"Everything we do gets translated into practice so that our work on congenital anomalies has led to a city register for these children and also a Yorkshire register" explains Professor Wright, the Director of the Bradford Institute for Health Research. On the face of it the risk is not great - a 4% risk of having a child with an abnormality if you marry a cousin, compared with 2% among the general population. But with repeated cousin marriage, the risks stack up in families with sometimes devastating results.
The Born in Bradford researchers are determined that theirs should be an applied health research study with results leading to better services. They have just secured £49 million of lottery funding to intervene in the lives of a new cohort of mothers as part of the Better Start initiative: "We want everything we find out in the research studies to be translated into practices that improve the health and well-being of people in Bradford and further afield" says Professor Wright.
The study was launched in 2007 and provides great insight health and lifestyle in the city. About 46 per cent of mothers in the study are from Pakistan, providing a fascinating insight into a new multi-ethnic generation. The impetus for research came from high infant mortality rates - double the national average - and so far the data has resulted in changes in national policy. Bradford now screens all pregnant women for gestational diabetes and Winifred meets those being encouraged to change their diet and habits to give their babies the best start in life.
In communities around the globe, genderqueer, gender-variant and gender-fluid people are rejecting the categories of male and female, and attempting to re-define gender identity. Linda Pressly asks if being non-binary breaks the last identity taboo, and explores the challenges it creates for the law, society and conventional concepts about the very nature of gender.
(Photo: Pips Bunce, the global head of Fixed Income & Derivatives IT engineering at Credit Suisse, who identifies as gender-fluid, or gender-variant).
Zoologist and broadcaster Lucy Cooke explores the science behind our seeming obsession with all things adorable. There has been an explosion in interest in cuteness, particularly online, with an ever growing number of websites dedicated to pandas, kittens, puppies and of course babies. If you are feeling a bit down in the dumps, what better way to brighten your day then looking at some cute baby animal frolicking about. But what is it that makes these creatures so darn attractive to us and can you be addicted to cute? Lucy investigates the latest scientific research looking at just what makes babies cute, and what looking at them does to our brain, with some surprising results. She visits London Zoo to visit her number one cute creature of choice, the sloth, to find out why sloths hit the top of the cute charts, but the Chinese giant salamander definitely doesn't, and why in terms of conservation, that matters.
Scores of Syrian civilians have been killed in a series of attacks on two cities in President Assad's coastal heartland. Islamic State said the blasts were in retaliation for air strikes by Russian and Syrian government forces. Also: a council in North Yorkshire votes to allow fracking. And why the phrase "piggy eyes" has acquired a whole new meaning.
Photo: Cars destroyed by bomb attacks. Credit AFP/Getty Images.
Award-winning poet and rapper Kate Tempest reads her debut novel, a tale of desire, ambition and untamed hedonism in London's beating heart.
In today's episode, Harry, Becky and Leon are fleeing London with a suitcase full of cash, leaving behind jealous boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and irate drug dealers. They're leaving because of what happened a year ago, when Becky's and Harry's worlds first collided together...
Written and read by Kate Tempest. Tempest is a poet, rapper, playright and novelist. She was awarded the Ted Hughes Prize for poetry in 2013 for her epic narrative poem, Brand New Ancients. The following year, her narrative-led hip hop album, Everybody Down, was nominated for the Mercury Prize.
David Baddiel hosts the second series of the provocative panel show where some of the funniest comedians have to go against all their instincts and try not to make an audience laugh.
Sean Curran reports from Westminster on a Treasury report about the impact of leaving the EU - is it an informative, economic forecast or an attempt to scare the public witless?
TUESDAY 24 MAY 2016
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b07bt4n1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b07btdbf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b07bt4n3)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b07bt4n5)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b07bt4n7)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b07bt4n9)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b07d7qfr)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with the former moderator of the Church of Scotland's General Assembly, the Very Rev John Chalmers.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b07byv9j)
Russian dairy industry, English vineyards, Consumer week.
Russia no longer needs our cheese even if the import ban is lifted, warns Russian dairy expert.
A British dairy farmer is making skyr, a fat free, high protein yoghurt that's widely found in Iceland.
Charlotte Smith visits a wine estate in Kent to help plant 10 hectares of vines.
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03mzv8n)
Grey Wagtail
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Chris Packham presents the story of the grey wagtail. Grey wagtails are supremely graceful birds which boost their appeal by nesting in photogenic locations. They revel in shaded spots near swift-flowing water and will also nest by canal lock-gates or mill-races.
TUE 06:00 Today (b07byvdc)
Morning news and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 Europeans - The Roots of Identity (b07byvdf)
Amsterdam
What's really shaped Europeans' identity? Historian Margaret MacMillan visits Amsterdam, exploring how a place bound to the sea and the globe developed its idea of Europe. Trade and consumption built up liberal values and the European 'way of life'. But how did a European colonial power relate to the outside world, and how does that history echo today?
Producer: Chris Bowlby
Editor: Bridget Harney.
TUE 09:30 The Ideas That Make Us (b04v5pgf)
Series 3
Virtue
Bettany Hughes considers virtue at a club for the English aristocracy, with a former Greek Minister of Finance, and with an aid worker just back from an ebola zone in Sierra Leone.
The surprising and invigorating history of the most influential ideas in the story of civilisation, described as 'a double espresso shot of philosophy, history, science and the arts'. Award--winning historian and broadcaster Bettany Hughes begins each programme with the first, extant evidence of a single word-idea in Ancient Greek culture and travels both forwards and backwards in time, investigating how these ideas have been moulded by history, and how they've shaped us.
In this programme Bettany explores virtue with experts from the humanities and sciences, people who see these big philosophical ideas playing out in their own lives including philosopher Angie Hobbs, writer and historian Stella Tillyard, former Greek Finance Minister Petros Doukas, and Oxfam's Head of Water and Sanitation Andy Bastaple. Bettany travels to Athens to see where these ideas were born and then explores the street markets, churches, offices and homes where they continue to morph and influence our daily lives.
Ideas examined in the first series, in September 2013, were idea, desire, agony, fame and justice. The second series, in January 2014, considered wisdom, comedy, liberty, peace and hospitality. Other ideas in this series are psyche, charisma, irony and nemesis.
Series Producer: Dixi Stewart.
TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b07byvdh)
In the Bonesetter's Waiting Room
Episode 2
Aarathi Prasad explores the ancient and modern in Indian medicine. Read by Sudha Bhuchar.
Indian Medicine is a fascinating mix of the ancient and the modern. From Ayurvedic treatments, which predate the Common Era, to the allopathic (Western) medicine which now operates in parallel. Aarathi Prasad takes us through the myriad medicinal worlds - from a bonesetters' clinic in Hyderabad, where breaks but not fractures are reset, via a shrine in the Dharavi megaslum (just outside of Mumbai) where the goddess Kali rules, to a fish doctor in Secunderabad who makes patients swallow live fish and a remarkable neuroscientist, Pawan Sinha, whose venture 'Project Prakash' has helped thousands of Indian children to see for the first time.
Episode 2: At the shrine of Subawa, where the bhoots (ghosts) rule.
Aarathi Prasad is a writer and geneticist. Her PhD was in molecular genetics at Imperial College and she is currently based at University College, London. Prasad has written for The Guardian, The Telegraph and Prospect Magazine, and her first book, Like A Virgin: How Science is redesigning the rules Of Sex, was published in 2012. She has written and presented TV and radio programmes, including Rewinding the Menopause and Quest for Virgin Birth for Radio 4, and Brave New World with Stephen Hawking for Channel 4 and the Discovery Channel.
Writer: Aarathi Prasad
Abridger: Pete Nichols
Reader: Sudha Bhuchar
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b07bt4nc)
What do American women make of Donald Trump? Food writer Sabrina Ghayour
Lord of the Flies is a text often chosen by teachers for pupils to study at GCSE. It has an all male cast. Woman's Hour explores the book's appropriateness for girls and boys alike and how boys would fare with a novel comprised exclusively of female characters.
In a recent poll 70 per cent of women in America had an unfavourable image of the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. So who are the women who are voting for Trump?
Chef, food writer and supper club host Sabrina Ghayour specialises in Persian and Middle Eastern food. For Cook the Perfect, she prepares Stir Fried Tangy Prawns from her new book, Sirocco.
Yesterday we heard from the lawyer at the top of the tree at HSBC, Sandie Okoro and Sandie nominated her heroine, actress, writer and stand-up comedian Angie Le Mar.
A Radio 4 documentary, Life Under Glass, tells the extraordinary story of how a sideshow doctor changed the course of medical science and saved the lives of 6,500 babies.
Presenter: Jane Garvey
Producer: Lucinda Montefiore.
TUE 10:45 Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City (b07byvdk)
Mary Ann in Autumn
Mary Ann in Autumn
Mary Ann in Autumn by Armistead Maupin
Episode Two
Mary Ann begins to adapt to life with Michael and Ben. Jake meets a new man at Pier 39.
Dramatised by Lin Coghlan
Producer Susan Roberts
Director Charlotte Riches
For more than three decades, Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series has blazed a trail through popular culture-from ground-breaking newspaper serial to classic novel. Radio 4 are dramatising the full series of the Tales novels for the very first time.
TUE 11:00 Life Under Glass (b07byvlq)
At Coney Island amusement park between 1903 and 1943 there was an extraordinary exhibit: tiny, premature babies. 'Dr. Martin Couney's infant incubator' facility was staffed by nurses in starched white uniforms and if you paid a quarter, you could see the babies in their incubators.
Journalist Claire Prentice has been following the story and tracked down some of those babies, now in their 70s, 80s and 90s, who were put on show. She discovers how Dr. Couney brought the incubator to prominence in the USA through World's Fairs and amusement parks, and explores how a man who was shunned by the medical establishment changed attitudes to premature babies and saved countless lives.
(This programme was produced in Scotland by Mark Rickards and first broadcast on BBC Radio 4.).
TUE 11:30 Punk, the Pistols and the Provinces (b07byvp2)
To mark its 40th anniversary, Mark Hodkinson looks at the impact of punk rock outside of London and, in particular, in Yorkshire where the Sex Pistols played their first and last gigs outside the capital.
Punk is viewed principally as a London phenomenon. The Sex Pistols in particular are synonymous with the capital, but their UK touring career outside the capital was book-ended by two shows more than 200 miles away.
On Wednesday 19 May 1976, six months before the release of their first single, the Sex Pistols performed at Sayer's nightclub in the sleepy market town of Northallerton in North Yorkshire. Just 19 months later, on Christmas Day 1977, the band made their last UK appearance, at Ivanhoe's, a small club in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.
Music fan and experienced journalist/broadcaster, Mark Hodkinson, visit both towns and speaks to people who were at the gigs. He plots the impact of punk in the provinces where thousands of disgruntled teenagers heeded The Clash's entreaty to the 'faraway towns' to 'come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls' ("London Calling").
Brian Simpson was the DJ at Sayer's which, in the weeks leading up to the Sex Pistols visit, had played host to Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders and The Searchers. Along with Steve Williams, who was also at the gig, he remembers people leaving the club in droves when the Sex Pistols began playing. ''We had no idea who they were,'' he says. ''Northallerton was suddenly at the forefront of punk rock but we had no idea that we were. It was about two weeks later when I saw their picture in one of the music papers that I realised I'd seen them play.''
A Smooth Operations production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:00 News Summary (b07bt4nf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 Home Front (b07byvp4)
24 May 1916 - Dieter Lippke
On this day in 1916, the Union Jack was to be flown from every public building for Empire Day, and Dieter feels increasingly isolated.
Written by Richard Monks
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
TUE 12:15 You and Yours (b07bt4nh)
Call You and Yours: How much does it matter to you where your food comes from?
Winifred Robinson presents Call You & Yours: How much does it matter to you where your food comes from? Email us youandyours@bbc.co.uk Please add your phone number to that email so we can call you back. The number to call during the programme is 03700 100 444. Guests include the man behind the Red Tractor logo - the UK's biggest farm and food standards scheme.
TUE 12:57 Weather (b07bt4nk)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 13:00 World at One (b07byvp6)
Analysis of news and current affairs.
TUE 13:45 England: Made in the Middle (b07byvp8)
Episode 2
Many people think of the Industrial Revolution as a Northern phenomenon - but historian Helen Castor argues it was actually dreamt up and devised in the English Midlands. If Britain left the eighteenth century the world's foremost industrial power, it was almost entirely thanks to Midlanders.
In this programme, Helen tells the story of the Lunar Society - a group of Midland entrepreneurs, enthusiasts and inventors who met up at a location in or near Birmingham once a month, on the Monday nearest the full moon. There they discussed ideas that would revolutionise societies across the world, from Boulton and Watt's steam engine to Erasmus Darwin's early intuitions of evolutionary theory, which he wrote up in rhyming couplets.
The Lunar Society counted among its members many of the most innovative thinkers of a particularly innovative age - major figures of the wider Enlightenment whose individual contributions were at least as significant as those of Voltaire in France, Goethe in Germany, and Benjamin Franklin in the United States.
Distance from saltwater is a defining feature of the landlocked Midlands, but if the entrepreneurs of the Lunar Society lacked a natural waterway to carry their wares to market, they didn't despair about their natural disadvantages. Instead they set about creating an artificial sea. Josiah Wedgwood got Parliament to approve a new canal from the East Midlands to Liverpool.
Without the new canal network, Birmingham could never have emerged as the leader of the Industrial Revolution.
Produced by Robert Shore and Ashley Byrne.
A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (b07btlmf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Dangerous Visions (b07byvpb)
Your Perfect Summer, On Sale Here
Ben Tavassoli, Oliver Chris and Claudie Blakley star in Ed Harris's twisted romance.
What will happen when VR games can deliver real love?
Theo has been booked to give twenty-four hour care to a gamer who's in an elective coma. The new immersive game he's playing simulates your first love affair.
But is it a simulation? Not to Theo...
Ben Tavassoli stars as Rash in Anthony Horowitz's new police drama, 'New Blood', on BBC One. He played Alpha in 'No Offence', and has recently appeared in 'Silent Witness' and 'Tyrant'.
Oliver Chris has starred in great British comedies from Bluestone 42 to Green Wing and The Office. He was the original Stanley Stubbers opposite James Corden in 'One Man, Two Guv'nors', played the Assistant Commissioner opposite Billie Piper in Richard Bean's 'Great Britain', and Prince William in Mike Bartlett's 'King Charles III'.
Claudie Blakley became well-known for her roles in period dramas 'Cranford', 'Lark Rise to Candleford' and 'Gosford Park'. More recently she's starred with David Threlfall and Steven Macintosh in 'What Remains', with David Morrissey in 'The Driver', and recently theatre roles include 'The Painkiller' with Rob Bryden and Kenneth Branagh.
Ed Harris's writing for radio has included winning the Audio Drama Award for BILLIONS, Sony Gold for THE RESISTANCE OF MRS BROWN, the Writer's Guild Award for TROLL, and THE WALL nominated for the Prix Europa. He writes the Radio 4 comedy DOT.
The music for the game is by Abi Fry
Theo ..... Ben Tavassoli
Saskia ..... Claudie Blakley
Paul ..... Oliver Chris
Sophie ..... Scarlett Brookes
Theresa ..... Adie Allen
Game ..... Nicola Ferguson
Human ..... Nick Underwood
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting
TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (b07bpv3d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
TUE 15:30 Shared Experience (b07bzdbx)
Series 5
Don't call us Barry Poppins. We're stay-at-home dads
There's nothing heroic about a man giving up work to look after the children while his wife goes out to work, say Sam, Richard and Josh, and yet as these three Dads tell Fi Glover, people often perceive them as being somehow remarkable for electing to be the primary carer. House husband or Barry Poppins are two terms that annoy them. Why wouldn't any man want to spend time with his children given the choice? Does 'providing for your children' have to mean sitting in an office for 8 hours a day? They discuss the highs and lows and differences of being a stay-at-home-Dad with candour and humour.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (b07bzdbz)
Punctuation
Michael Rosen talks to Keith Houston about punctuation symbols and how they came to exist. Keith is the author of Shady Characters: Ampersands, Interrobangs and Other Typographical Curiosities.
Producer Beth O'Dea.
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (b07bzdc1)
Series 39
George Fox
George Fox, born in 1624 in Leicestershire, is best known as the founder of the Quakers. In early life he was apprenticed to a shoemaker, and for a while he worked as a shepherd as well. But it was as a preacher travelling widely across the land that he made his name, and also received the most abuse. As he writes: "... the people fell upon me in great rage, struck me down and almost stifled and smothered me. And I was cruelly beaten and bruised by them with their hands, Bibles and sticks."
Nominating the dissenting George Fox is Ann Limb, chair of the Scout Association. Also in studio, Jonathan Fryer, editor of George Fox and the Children of the Light.
Matthew Parris presents, and the producer in Bristol is Miles Warde.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2016.
TUE 17:00 PM (b07bt4nm)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b07bt4np)
The Council says it's a fresh start for the department looking after vulnerable children. Iraqi offensive against IS in Falujjah. An NHS doctor who joined jihadis in Syria.
TUE 18:28 EU Referendum Campaign Broadcasts (b07bzdc3)
Stronger IN Europe
24/05/2016
Referendum Campaign Broadcast by the Stronger IN Europe campaign for the Referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union on 23rd June 2016.
TUE 18:30 Isy Suttie's Love Letters (b01s8cp3)
Series 2
George and Louise
Isy Suttie recounts the tale of George and Louise, set against the backdrop of the Matlock Ceilidh over Christmas and New Year 2014.
Another love story, told partly through song.
Sometimes Isy has merely observed the lives of others; quite often she's intervened, changing the action dramatically - for better or worse.
Intertwined within these stories are related real life anecdotes from her own, often disastrous, love life.
With her award-winning multi-character and vocal skills, and accompanied by her guitar, Isy creates a hilarious and deeply moving world, sharing with us her lessons in life and love.
Producer: Lyndsay Fenner
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2014.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (b07bzdc5)
Pip is not very hungry, she's nervous about what the day holds. Matthew is coming to visit, even though he's already said they should end their relationship. Before that, with help from Josh, Pip moves her cattle from Brookfield to Home Farm.
The mob-grazing herd is now complete. It's a big moment that David, Ruth and Jennifer turn out to see. Josh is sceptical whether it will make any money. Pip hopes to prove him wrong. Adam says they never pretended it anything other than experiment and it might looked back on as a game changer. As they watch the cattle settle, Adam tells Pip that Brian and Will are not happy about the elves in the Millennium Wood. They're concerned about the impact the visitors they are attracting are having on the pheasants.
Back at Brookfield, David and Ruth notice the awkward atmosphere on Matthew's arrival. David suggests Pip takes Matthew to see the herd she'll be managing at Home Farm. Matthew is impressed with the herd. He tells Pips she's a great farmer. Their relationship won't work because they're both so committed to their work. Pip insists there must be a way but Matthew points out that Brookfield is more important to her future than he is.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (b07bt4nr)
Sue Johnston, Burt Kwouk remembered, Yayoi Kusama, Simon Stone, Philip Venables
Sue Johnston, best known for her TV portrayal of The Royle Family's matriarch Barbara, on reuniting with Craig Cash from the series in Rovers, a new TV comedy about lower-league football team Redbridge Rovers and their oddball set of fans.
Actor Burt Kwouk, famous for playing Cato in the Pink Panther films and for his role in TV drama series Tenko, is remembered by film historian Matthew Sweet.
Yayoi Kusama had the highest global exhibition attendance of any artist in 2014, and this year she was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People. Now, at 87, she has an exhibition of new work in London, featuring pumpkin sculptures and her continuing preoccupation with polka dots and finely-scalloped 'infinity net' patterns. Louisa Buck reviews.
Simon Stone discusses directing The Daughter, starring Geoffrey Rush and Sam Neill. The film is a re-imagining of Ibsen's The Wild Duck and is based on Stone's own critically-acclaimed adaptation for stage.
Composer Philip Venables tells Samira about his operatic adaptation of Sarah Kane's play
4.48 Psychosis which deals with the late writer's experience of depression.
Presenter Samira Ahmed
Producer Jerome Weatherald.
TUE 19:45 Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City (b07byvdk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (b07bzdfn)
An Unsafe Conviction?
For the past 22 years Thomas Bourke has been in prison for a double murder he says he didn't commit.
The killings made national headlines in 1993 when two MOT inspectors, Alan Singleton and Simon Bruno, were shot dead at a garage in Stockport, in Greater Manchester.
The evidence produced in court against Bourke seemed compelling. Two mechanics at the garage said they had seen him carry out the shooting which the prosecution claimed was motivated by a dispute about his licence to carry out MOT tests.
As the jury began their deliberations, a gun was found inside Strangeways prison where Bourke was on remand. Amid subsequent heightened security around the court, he was found guilty and given a minimum 25 year sentence. But protesting his innocence all these years means that he may never be eligible for parole so could remain in prison for the rest of his life.
His sister Jo has been tirelessly fighting his case. A chiropodist with no connections to criminals, she began visiting notorious drug dealers and suspected killers to try to gather new evidence that would help clear his name.
Through the work of Jo and other campaigners, Bourke's case is now back with the Criminal Cases Review Commission which they hope will lead to an appeal.
So has Thomas Bourke been the victim of a shocking miscarriage of justice? Simon Cox investigates.
Producer: Sally Chesworth.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (b07bt4nt)
How can air travel be made easier for blind people?
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted. Over the past few months, the programme has featured a number of stories where people have faced unforeseen difficulties when travelling by air. David Adams was told he needed a letter on letterhead from the Guide Dogs Association UK to be able to take his guide dog on a flight, even though he already had official documentation identifying his dog as a guide dog.
Catalina Montesinos Debrooker felt totally ignored by KLM airline staff when the bag in which she carries her essential medication, was not allowed on board. Staff made arrangements with a relative, with whom she was travelling, for some medication to be removed from the bag before it was stowed as checked luggage. She was never asked her opinion.
Mark Fielding and his new wife booked a honeymoon in Tenerife. They made all the arrangements through a trusted travel agent. On the flight out, they were given no safety briefing onboard the plane, and indeed were not acknowledged by the cabin crew until they landed at their destination.
Sue Bott, deputy chief executive of Disability Rights UK says these are stories her organisation hears a lot. She thinks the airline regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, could be doing more to work with airlines to ensure a better experience for blind and visually impaired passengers.
Peter White puts all of these concerns to Richard Moriarty, director for consumers and markets, for the Civil Aviation Authority.
We hear views from sighted listeners about the previous programme which was all about asking for, and receiving assistance.
Mike Lambert, who has recently become unemployed, talks about his feelings after going through the process of completing an application form to obtain the government benefit Employment Support Allowance, and how the process leaves him feeling confused.
Producer: Lee Kumatat.
TUE 21:00 All in the Mind (b07bzdjy)
Exams and the mental health of children, A community approach to suicide prevention
As every summer, exams are in the news. We look at whether the pressure to do well in exams is having an effect on children's mental health.
We speak to experts from Education, Psychology and Economics who are now working together to address the wider issue of the effect of Britain's current education system on our children's wellbeing.
Looking beyond anecdotal evidence, we ask why, when considering education, is it so difficult to find firm data from which to draw conclusions and make recommendations?
And we hear from Today's finalist in the All in the Mind Awards.
The Tomorrow Project is a suicide prevention project established in response to the needs and concerns of local communities, in Nottinghamshire affected by suicide.
We meet people who have been helped by the project and discuss the kind of services it provides.
TUE 21:30 Europeans - The Roots of Identity (b07byvdf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 21:58 Weather (b07bt4nw)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b07bt4ny)
EU debate - a turn-off for women?
We discuss whether the EU debate, noisy and intemperate, has become a turnoff for women. What do social workers need to do their job better? Donald Trump wants to build a wall on US border - but is it as porous as he says? And the new Stronger In campaign video - the perils of making a political advert that tries to appeal to younger voters.
TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b07bzffd)
The Bricks That Built the Houses
A World-Shrinking Gut-Smashing Kiss
Award-winning poet and rapper Kate Tempest reads from her novel, a tale of desire, ambition and hedonism, set in south-east London now.
Today, we meet Pete, one of London's over-qualified twenty-somethings living on dead-end jobs, but wanting more. And then there's Becky, still dreaming of dancing but whose reality is waitressing by day and giving massages in hotels by night. And Harry's still getting by nicely by dealing drugs to the elite of the city, but she can't forget the girl she opened up to in the club to the other night. Soon all three of their worlds will collide together.
Written and read by Mercury Prize-nominated Kate Tempest, who won the Ted Hughes Prize for poetry in 2013.
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Julian Wilkinson.
TUE 23:00 Spotlight Tonight with Nish Kumar (b07ctlnq)
Pilot
We all like to think we know about the news and yet, whilst jokes about George Osborne's new haircut are all well and good, do you still have that nagging suspicion there's important things going on beneath the headlines you'd like to know about?
Well, help is at hand! Nish Kumar is here to cast his spotlight on the week's most talked about news items, taking an in-depth look at the biggest stories from the past seven days to scrutinise what's actually going on beneath the bluster.
In tonight's show, Nish gets to grip with the EU and the scaremongering coming from both sides, press regulation in light of Paddling Pool-gate, and the seemingly impenetrable TTIP. Meanwhile, intrepid reporter Diane Steer puts the Remain campaign's predictions to the test.
Starring Nish Kumar, Kieran Hodgson, Cariad Lloyd, and Freya Parker.
Written by Liam Beirne, Sarah Campbell, Max Davis, Gabby Hutchinson-Crouch, Nish Kumar, and Tom Neenan.
The research producer was Rachel Wheeley.
The production coordinator was Sophie Richardson.
It was produced by Matt Stronge and was a BBC Studios Production.
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (b07bzdk0)
Conservative MPs who want Britain to leave the EU say the Bank of England Governor is getting too involved in politics. Susan Hulme watches a heated committee session.
Also on the programme:
* Allegations are made that British-built cluster bombs are being used in the killing of civilians in Yemen.
* MPs quiz French energy chiefs on whether the projected 18 Billion pound Hinkley Point nuclear power station will go ahead.
* The Defence Secretary updates MPs on progress made to defeat so-called Islamic State.
* The strange story of the cat called 'Palmerston' recruited to eliminate rodents in the Foreign Office.
WEDNESDAY 25 MAY 2016
WED 00:00 Midnight News (b07bt4qc)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b07byvdh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b07bt4qf)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b07bt4qh)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b07bt4qk)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (b07bt4qm)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b07d7hzy)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with the former moderator of the Church of Scotland's General Assembly, the Very Rev John Chalmers.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (b07c2n8k)
Food fraud and traceability, Grading beef carcasses
Traceability and food fraud are the issues we're looking at today, alongside Radio 4's consumer programme, You and Yours. We hear the kinds of issues that Staffordshire County Council's Trading Standards have been dealing with recently. This includes
the prosecution of some people for breaking animal health laws, including the repackaging and placing of unsafe food on the market, which resulted in a £6,000 fine and a 2 year suspended sentence.
Also, Nancy Nicholson finds out why British abattoirs are installing electronic imaging equipment to grade carcasses. It's to give consistent feed back, and pay farmers accordingly for supplying the sort of cattle that are in demand with consumers. But most beef farmers still rely on "eye" and experience rather than precise technical information to judge when animals are ready to go for slaughter - and that can cost them dearly if they supply a product that's too lean or too fat. However that could be about to change - as a new product could go some way towards giving producers more information about their livestock before they're sold.
Nancy Nicolson has been to meet one of the researchers involved in the project, at the Scottish Rural College, south of Edinburgh.
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Mark Smalley.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03thvvc)
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
John Aitchison presents the lesser spotted woodpecker. Lesser spotted woodpeckers are the smallest of our three woodpeckers and about the size of a house sparrow. They have horizontal white stripes across their backs, hence their old name of 'barred woodpecker'. The lesser spotted woodpecker is one of our most elusive birds. For most of the year it's relatively silent but in late February and March, males begin to stake out their territories in old woods and orchards by calling loudly and drumming softly.
WED 06:00 Today (b07c2nrc)
Morning news and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Midweek (b07c2nrf)
Martha High, Chris Lemmon, The Reverend Robin Griffith-Jones, Jamie Squibb
Libby Purves meets soul singer Martha High; Chris Lemmon, son of the actor Jack; the Reverend Robin Griffith-Jones of the Temple Church in London and motocross rider Jamie Squibb.
Soul singer Martha High was one of James Brown's most regular backing singers. She performed with him at the concert given on the night of Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968 and at the Rumble in the Jungle boxing match in Zaire in 1974. Her debut solo album, Singing for the Good Times, is released on Blind Faith Records.
The Reverend Robin Griffith-Jones is the reverend and valiant master of the Temple Church in London. Temple Church was built by the Knights Templar in the 12th century and served as King John's London headquarters in 1214-5 in the lead up to Magna Carta. The church, which features in Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code, is the venue for the premiere of a newly commissioned opera to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London. Temple Church Choir can be heard at evensong every Wednesday and mattins every Sunday. The Da Vinci Code and the Secrets of the Temple by Robin Griffith-Jones is published by Canterbury Press.
Jamie Squibb is one of the UK's top freestyle motocross riders. A three time British champion, he performs radical airborne motorcycle aerobatics and ground-based stunts. He is the only British rider taking part in Nitro Circus Live - an extreme sports show featuring jaw-dropping feats and choreographed riding routines. Nitro Circus Live is on tour.
Chris Lemmon is an actor and composer. His biographical play, Twist of Lemmon, celebrates the loves, times, trials and tribulations of his father, the Hollywood actor and Oscar winner, Jack Lemmon. Known for his films including Some Like It Hot, Missing, The Odd Couple, Mister Roberts and Glengarry Glen Ross, Jack Lemmon died in 2001. Twist of Lemmon is at St James Studio, London SW1.
WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b07c2nrh)
In the Bonesetter's Waiting Room
Episode 3
Aarathi Prasad explores the ancient and modern in Indian medicine. Read by Sudha Bhuchar.
Indian Medicine is a fascinating mix of the ancient and the modern. From Ayurvedic treatments, which predate the Common Era, to the allopathic (Western) medicine which now operates in parallel. Aarathi Prasad takes us through the myriad medicinal worlds - from a bonesetters' clinic in Hyderabad, where breaks but not fractures are reset, via a shrine in the Dharavi megaslum (just outside of Mumbai) where the goddess Kali rules, to a fish doctor in Secunderabad who makes patients swallow live fish and a remarkable neuroscientist, Pawan Sinha, whose venture 'Project Prakash' has helped thousands of Indian children to see for the first time.
Episode 3: It all began with a rabbit, so the bonesetter's story goes.
Aarathi Prasad is a writer and geneticist. Her PhD was in molecular genetics at Imperial College and she is currently based at University College, London. Prasad has written for The Guardian, The Telegraph and Prospect Magazine, and her first book, Like A Virgin: How Science is redesigning the rules Of Sex, was published in 2012. She has written and presented TV and radio programmes, including Rewinding the Menopause and Quest for Virgin Birth for Radio 4, and Brave New World with Stephen Hawking for Channel 4 and the Discovery Channel.
Writer: Aarathi Prasad
Abridger: Pete Nichols
Reader: Sudha Bhuchar
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b07bt4qp)
Jodie Foster talks about fame, her relationship with her mum and her latest film project
Jodie Foster on her latest movie project , how she's coped with fame over the past 50 years and how her relationship with her mother has mellowed over the years.
Hillary Margolis from Human Rights Watch and Farhan Haq from the UN talk about allegations again United Nation Peacekeepers of sexual abuse. What is the extent of the problem, why is it happening and what is being done to tackle it?
Plus the third link in The Chain Chain Grace Ononiwu Chief Crown Prosecutor for the West Midlands, Crown Prosecution Service.
Presented by Jane Garvey
Producer Beverley Purcell.
WED 10:41 Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City (b07c2nrk)
Mary Ann in Autumn
Episode 3
Mary Ann in Autumn by Armistead Maupin
Episode Three
Mary Ann heads up to Pinyon Canyon with Michael and Ben for some time-out before her operation. Encouraged by Mrs Madrigal, Jake takes a chance on Jonah.
Dramatised by Lin Coghlan
Producer Susan Roberts
Director Charlotte Riches
For more than three decades, Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series has blazed a trail through popular culture-from ground-breaking newspaper serial to classic novel. Radio 4 are dramatising the full series of the Tales novels for the very first time.
WED 10:55 The Listening Project (b07c2nzm)
Tim and Michael - Living on the Border
Fi Glover with a conversation about how a random postcode can change a national identity. Another in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess.
WED 11:00 Born in Bradford (b07btlmh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
WED 11:30 Polyoaks (b07c2p2z)
Series 4
Back in the NHSS
Care provision in Bristol is restructured ‘in order to liberate the fiscal horizon’. Will the surgery submit to supervision from the private sector or will it go under?
Meanwhile one of the patients is sitting on a sensitive problem.
Nigel Planer and Simon Greenall star in the Health Service satire by Dr Phil Hammond and David Spicer.
Neil Dudgeon and John Schwab make guest appearances.
The Polyoaks surgery is plagued by strikes, endless new management initiatives, staff shortages, militant patients, eight day weeks, privatisation – and all these things are entirely their fault, apparently.
The dysfunctional Bristol surgery run by warring doctors, brothers Roy and Hugh Thornton alternates between embracing and collapsing under reforms. They’re a nurse down, they’ve got to slash their budget and there’s a new Head of the local Clinical Commissioning Group who eats GPs for breakfast.
The practice’s calamitous ‘celebrity’ Dr Jeremy who doesn’t know what a Clinical Commissioning Group is, continues to dodge alimony payments, malpractice suits and the new scary practice Nurse Monica
Hugh..........................Simon Greenall
Jeremy.......................David Westhead
Monica.......................Polly Frame
Roy............................Nigel Planer
Mr Beckman................Neil Dudgeon
Stephanie Simons........Margaret Cabourn-Smith
Mr Eisenburger............John Schwab
Director: Frank Stirling
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in May 2016.
WED 12:00 News Summary (b07bt4qr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 Home Front (b07c2pgr)
25 May 1916 - Oswald Dyer
On this day in 1916, Sir Neville Chamberlain opened the Royal commission on the Irish Rebellion in Dublin, and Oswald Dyer attends tribunal in Exeter.
Written by Richard Monks
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
WED 12:15 You and Yours (b07bt4qt)
NHS continuing care, Gay bars, Hotel Chocolat
We reveal how thousands of people are still waiting to find out if their relatives were wrongly charged for their care. You and Yours has found that more than 11,000 mainly older people have still not been told if they were entitled to what is called NHS Continuing Care. It entitles patients with a health need to get all their care and accommodation costs funded by the NHS. But many did not know, so their homes were sold to pay for care that should have been free. We hear from some who think they are owed thousands of pounds. We also hear from NHS Clinical Commissioners who are wading through a backlog of almost 60,000 cases.
Is there any need these days for gay clubs and bars? There is now much less prejudice against gay people and the internet and dating apps have provided new ways for people to meet. Research suggests that eight out of ten gay men met their long term partner online. In 2001 it was closer to one in ten. Dating apps and online dating have become hugely popular and the owners of some gay bars and clubs say it is reducing business. We report on how the gay community is affected when venues close, and how some bars are finding that they need to work harder to attract customers.
There is money to be made in selling luxury chocolates, and there's no better proof of that than the success of the British company, Hotel Chocolat. The firm was co-founded by Angus Thirlwell, who is now the Chief Executive. He tells us about the idea behind the company, the secret of its success, and why it was recently floated on the stock exchange.
Producer: Jonathan Hallewell
Presenter: Winifred Robinson.
WED 12:57 Weather (b07bt4qw)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 13:00 World at One (b07c2q30)
Analysis of news and current affairs.
WED 13:45 England: Made in the Middle (b07c2q32)
Episode 3
Where do you think of when you hear the words 'quintessential English countryside'? Probably somewhere in the sublime North or the beautiful South. Rarely - despite the odd exclamation over the splendours of Warwickshire or Shropshire - does anyone speak up for the magnificence of the Midlands generally. But historian Helen Castor claims it is the Midlands, rather than Kent, deserves the title The Garden of England.
For many, the Midlands consists of little more than service stations on the M1 or nodes on the rail network. But the middle band of the country has actually given birth to many of the myths associated with England's green and pleasant land.
Why don't more people know this? Helen argues the answer is bound up with the Industrial Revolution, and Midlanders' commitment to innovation. In order to serve as the nation's testing ground for new technologies, Midlanders have consistently sacrificed their surroundings. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Industrial and Agricultural Revolutions reconfigured the Midland landscape and brought passionate responses from the region's greatest writers, including the great Northants 'peasant poet', John Clare, outraged by the enclosure movement, and the Notts radical D H Lawrence, who scorned the ruination of his native woods and fields by the coal mines.
The Midland landscape has continued to cast a spell on the nation's greatest writers and composers all the same. Edward Elgar took his musical cue from the West Midlands, while in the imagination of JRR Tolkien the same landscapes gave rise to the notion of Hobbits and Middle-earth.
Produced by Robert Shore and Ashley Byrne
A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 14:00 The Archers (b07bzdc5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Dangerous Visions (b07c2svl)
News from Nowhere
News from Nowhere is a classic piece of futuristic writing, first published in 1890 by artist, designer and socialist William Morris. Its central tenet - that society should refind the value of work and thrive on beauty, rather than consumerism - is timely. This updated drama revisits Morris' vision of a new society for now.
Our Will Guest is a modern day, 21st Century man, travelling from 2016 to a future Utopia. The word utopia comes from the Greek ou-topos, meaning 'no-place' or 'nowhere'. There is uneasy antagonism between Will's 21st Century values and those of 'Nowhere'. But there is also love......Will goes on a time travelling voyage of discovery, finding a new love for society, as well as a woman.
Part of the Dangerous Visions BBC Radio 4 season.
Cast
Will Guest.......................Ron Cook
Ellen...............................Catrin Stewart
Dick.................................Keiron Self
Clara...............................Claire Cage
Old Hammond.................Richard Nichols
Grumbler.........................Roger Evans
The girl...........................Kristy Phillipps
Chinese worker.............Crystal Yu
Dramatist Sarah Woods
Producer Polly Thomas
Sound design Nigel Lewis
Production co ordination Lindsay Rees
A BBC Cymru/Wales production for BBC Radio 4
WED 15:00 Money Box (b07c2sww)
Money Box Live: Understanding the New State Pension
It's been billed as a simpler, easier to understand flat rate State Pension. You could receive up to £1
55.65 per week if you've reached retirement age from April 6th this year. But Government figures show that only 45% of people retiring under the new system in the first five years will actually receive the full amount. It all depends on your National Insurance record, and whether you paid into a good pension at work.
Do you understand what you'll get? Can you improve it? And when can you claim it?
Call 03700 100 444 from
1pm to
3.30pm on Wednesday, standard geographic charges from landlines and mobiles will apply. Or e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk now.
Presenter: Paul Lewis
Producer: Lesley McAlpine + Alex Lewis
Editor: Andrew Smith.
WED 15:30 All in the Mind (b07bzdjy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b07c2t5k)
'Queer' wars, Nigerian beauty pageants
'Queer' Wars: The claim that LGBT rights are human rights meets fierce, sometimes deadly opposition in many parts of the world. Politicians and religious leaders invoke tradition to deflect such universal claims, accusing Western activists of neo colonial interference. Laurie Taylor talks to Dennis Altman, Professorial Fellow in Human Security at La Trobe University, Melbourne, who has examined the international polarisation over sexual rights. He asks how best we can advocate for change in contexts where people face violence and imprisonment for their sexuality and gender. They're joined by Lama Abu- Odeh, Professor in Law at Georgetown University, Washington.
Also, Nigerian Beauty Pageants. Juliet Gilbert, Teaching Fellow in African Studies and Anthropology at the University of Birmingham, reflects on the popularity of such spectacles in a country where crowned winners use pageantry as a 'platform' for success, hoping to overcome the double bind of gender and generation in a deeply religious and patriarchal society.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (b07bt4r0)
Press bias, Police and the media, Digital media
How has the media been covering the EU referendum debate? Is the press bias towards leave, Reuters report thinks so. If it is bias, is that making a difference? Does the press set the broadcasters agenda? Why are we seeing so few women in the debate and have the public really engaged with the referendum campaign so far, what difference might the upcoming debates make?
Draft media guidelines published by the College of Policing impose a number of new controls on police contact with journalists. They say that off the record (or non reportable) conversations between police officers and journalists should only happen in "exceptional circumstances". And they set out wide-ranging circumstances in which officers are urged to involve Corporation Communications Departments (press officers) rather than speak to journalists directly. The new guidelines replace a similar document published by the Association of Chief Police Officers in 2010 and appear to go further in restricting direct contact between police and journalists. A successful working relationship between the police service and the media is vital. Working with the media to communicate to the public can help solve crimes, bring offenders to justice and keep communities safe."
Presenter: Andrea Catherwood
Producer: Maire Devine.
WED 17:00 PM (b07bt4r2)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b07bt4r4)
25/05//2016 Institute for Fiscal Studies criticised in EU referendum debate
Vote Leave accuses IFS of bias after it warned about the financial impact of Brexit
WED 18:30 Heresy (b07c2t5p)
Series 10
Episode 2
Victoria Coren Mitchell presents another edition of the show which dares to commit heresy .
Her guests this week are Alex Horne, Jonny Woo and Richard Osman. Together they discuss money, dress codes and sexy TV dramas.
Producer: Daisy Knight
An Avalon production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in May 2016.
WED 19:00 The Archers (b07c2t5t)
Matthew finds Ruth in the middle of milking. They agree Pip is very proud of her new herd. Ruth asks how things are between him and Pip. As right as we can be, he replies. He heads off before she can ask if he wants a cup of tea. Matthew joins Pip who's looking over the cattle at Home Farm. Pip says he's right about their relationship, it can't continue. They kiss one last time. Matthew says it will be a lovely way to remember her, with her herd, surrounded by her future.
Rex goes to Brookfield looking for Josh to moan about Toby who is off filming. He finds Ruth, Josh is at college, and David is doing Bridge Farm's silage. Ruth lets Rex know that Matthew has left so Pip might need cheering up. Later, Rex tells Pip he's taken her advice on the goslings. They're going to get 200 this year. Rex sympathises with Pip over her break up with Matthew. Pip remarks Rex is such a good friend.
Fallon invites Jazzer for lunch at The Bull and asks what's going on between him and Tom. Jazzer is indignant; he's got his P45 to prove Tom's strength of feeling. Fallon tells Jazzer he can come to Bridge Farm to help her with preparations for the Jumble Trail. When Jazzer goes to the bar she phones Kirsty. If Kirsty can work on Tom hopefully the Bridge Farms pigs won't have to go.
WED 19:15 Front Row (b07bt4r6)
Neil Gaiman, Liz Lochhead, Roy Williams
Four of writer Neil Gaiman's short stories have been adapted for television. Likely Stories stars the likes of Johnny Vegas, Rita Tushingham and Kenneth Cranham, and has an original score by Jarvis Cocker. Neil Gaiman talks to John about his journey from writing rock biographies to becoming a million-selling author.
Earlier this year Liz Lochhead stepped down as Makar, or National Poet of Scotland, As her new play opens in Edinburgh, she discusses Thon Man Moliere, and her new collection of poetry, Fugitive Colours.
Plus award-winning writer Roy Williams on his new play Soul, which tells the story of the legendary musician Marvin Gaye. Son of Reverend Marvin Gaye Snr, it was in the church where young Marvin fell in love with music. But sadly, it was the tempestuous relationship between the two men which led to Marvin being shot by his father at point-blank range on April 1st 1984.
Presenter John Wilson
Producer Ella-mai Robey.
WED 19:45 Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City (b07c2nrk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:41 today]
WED 20:00 FutureProofing (b07c2t5y)
Language
Will technology enable us to communicate in all languages in future, or will we all be using just one? FutureProofing discovers the future of language and finds out how we may not need it all.
Presenters Timandra Harkness and Leo Johnson explore the growing influence that technology exerts on the evolution of language, and discover the new words we may be using, and the new ways we might be using them in the 21st century and beyond.
Producer: Jonathan Brunert.
WED 20:45 Why I Changed My Mind (b07c2t62)
Series 2
Peter Hitchens
Peter Hitchens is a prominent and trenchant conservative writer. But as a young man, he was a deeply committed Trotskyist. Dominic Lawson talks to him about how and why his political views have changed over the years, and whether in fact his old and new beliefs have something in common.
"Why I Changed My Mind" is a series in which Dominic explores how and why prominent individuals have modified their views on controversial topics.
Producer: Martin Rosenbaum.
WED 21:00 Science Stories (b07c2t9d)
Series 3
Chaucer's Astrolabe - The Medieval GPS
Philip Ball tells the story of Chaucer's Astrolabe and why the famed poet came to write the world's first scientific instruction manual. In the Middle Ages, no self respecting astronomer would be without an Astrolabe, a pocket sized device for working out the movements of the planets and stars. So how did a poet come to write the first user booklet? This story shows Chaucer in a new light: as a pre-eminent astronomer, and offers a new key to unlocking his most famous literary works.
WED 21:30 Midweek (b07c2nrf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 21:58 Weather (b07cbwr9)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b07bt4r8)
Latest on future of Tata Steel in UK
Latest in the future of Tata steel in the UK, the rights of transgender people in America - and how ticket touts are pushing up ticket prices.
WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b07c2v2m)
The Bricks That Built the Houses
None of It's Real
Award-winning poet and rapper Kate Tempest reads from her novel, a tale of desire, ambition and hedonism, set among south-east London's millennials today.
Harry and Leon are feeling edgy about a big drug deal as their usual contact is in jail. Meanwhile, Becky's still trying to make it as a dancer, but knows that Pete won't be happy about how she'll have to fund it.
Written and read by Mercury Prize-nominated Kate Tempest, who won the Ted Hughes Prize for poetry in 2013.
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Julian Wilkinson.
WED 23:00 Lenny Henry's Rogues Gallery (b07c2v2p)
Series 1
The Birthing Project
An alien updates his governing council on a research trip to Earth that ended in disaster.
Series of comic monologues with twists-in-the-tale, written and performed by Lenny Henry.
Producer: Sam Michell.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2016.
WED 23:15 Death and Taxis (b07c2v2r)
Sometimes I Feel
Adapted by Sean Grundy and starring Scott Capurro as Andy Warhol. Also starring Ronni Ancona, Jon Culshaw and Kerry Shale.
Everyone who is anyone in New York from 1976 to 1987 is in Warhol's diary - from Mick Jagger to Donald Trump.
"Friday, August 30, 1978: The doorbell rang and it was Liza. She said, 'give me every drug you've got.' I gave them some coke, Valium and four Quaaludes. A little figure in a white hat came up, and it was Marty Scorsese, hiding around the corner. He and Liza went off to have their affair on all the drugs. (Valium $1)"
Beginning in the fall of 1976, America’s most famous artist Andy Warhol talked to his secretary by phone at
9:00 AM, every Monday to Friday morning, for ten years. He would talk about the events of the previous day, and his office would transcribe his monologues into diary pages.
The diary began as a careful recording of his use of money, from phone calls to nickels for bag-ladies to cab rides (lots of cab rides), but quickly evolved into Warhol’s personal observations. It was posthumously published in 1989 - a condensed version of Andy’s more-than-20,000 page, phoned-in audit/diary.
The core themes to the dramas are Warhol’s loves (art, men, fame, money, mainly money) and his fears (failure, embarrassment, death, mainly death).
The episodes follow four key themes, using four people in Andy’s life from 76-87 - homeless Crazy Matty, Warhol’s boyfriend Jon Gould, writer Truman Capote and artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Woven into this world are buddies Mick and Bianca Jagger, Jerry Hall, Liza Minnelli and Donald Trump.
Nobody escapes his sharp tongue.
Cast:
BIANCA JAGGER/ JERRY HALL/ IVANA TRUMP................RONNI ANCONA
ANDY WARHOL.............................................................SCOTT CAPURRO
MICK JAGGER/ DONALD TRUMP.....................................JON CULSHAW
FRED HUGHES / LEWIS ALLEN.......................................KERRY SHALE
JON GOULD..................................................................MARTIN T SHERMAN
Based on The Andy Warhol Diaries, edited by Pat Hackett
Writer: Sean Grundy
Producer: David Morley
Director: Dirk Maggs
A Perfectly Normal production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (b07c2v2t)
The splits in the Conservative Party over Europe are exploited by Labour at Prime Minister's Question time, when George Osborne deputises for David Cameron. Sean Curran reports on some lively exchanges.
Also on the programme:
* How could a Leave outcome to the EU Referendum affect the future of Scotland?
* The latest in the inquiry into what went wrong at British Home Stores.
* Peers voice their concerns at plans to replaces bursaries for nurses with a system of student loans.
* Labour criticises the Government's latest proposals on education.
THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016
THU 00:00 Midnight News (b07bt4st)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b07c2nrh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b07bt4sx)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b07bt4sz)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b07bt4t1)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (b07bt4t3)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b07d7hqd)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with the former moderator of the Church of Scotland's General Assembly, the Very Rev John Chalmers.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (b07c2w4s)
Microbeads harming marine life, woodcock decline and fruit packaging
There are renewed calls for a ban on the use of plastic microbeads, which harm marine life. The microscopic beads are used in many cosmetics, such as face and body scrubs, and don't biodegrade. The Environmental Audit Commission has been taking evidence from campaigners who say they should be banned outright, and a representative from the plastics industry who believes we should try a voluntary ban first to phase them out. We speak to the chair of the Committee.
And Anna Hill asks why, when it's in serious decline, the woodcock is still being shot legally for sport.
Presented by Sybil Ruscoe and produced by Sally Challoner.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dx2x8)
Marsh Tit
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 Marsh Tit. The marsh tit is badly-named. It doesn't live in marshes, and is most at home in older broad-leaved woodlands. "Oak tit" might be a better name. Unlike some other tit species they don't travel far, holding and defending their woodland territories throughout the winter.
ProducerBrett Westwood,MRS SARAH PITT,Sarah Blunt.
THU 06:00 Today (b07c2w5g)
Morning news and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (b07c2w5j)
The Gettysburg Address
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, ten sentences long, delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg after the Union forces had won an important battle with the Confederates. Opening with " Four score and seven years ago," it became one of the most influential statements of national purpose, asserting that America was "conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" and "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Among those inspired were Martin Luther King Jr whose "I have a dream" speech, delivered at the Lincoln Memorial 100 years later, echoed Lincoln's opening words.
With
Catherine Clinton
Denman Chair of American History at the University of Texas and International Professor at Queen's University, Belfast
Susan-Mary Grant
Professor of American History at Newcastle University
And
Tim Lockley
Professor of American History at the University of Warwick
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b07c2w5l)
In the Bonesetter's Waiting Room
Episode 4
Aarathi Prasad explores the ancient and modern in Indian medicine. Read by Sudha Bhuchar.
Indian Medicine is a fascinating mix of the ancient and the modern. From Ayurvedic treatments, which predate the Common Era, to the allopathic (Western) medicine which now operates in parallel. Aarathi Prasad takes us through the myriad medicinal worlds - from a bonesetters' clinic in Hyderabad, where breaks but not fractures are reset, via a shrine in the Dharavi megaslum (just outside of Mumbai) where the goddess Kali rules, to a fish doctor in Secunderabad who makes patients swallow live fish and a remarkable neuroscientist, Pawan Sinha, whose venture 'Project Prakash' has helped thousands of Indian children to see for the first time.
Episode 4: They come in their thousands to eat live fish.
Aarathi Prasad is a writer and geneticist. Her PhD was in molecular genetics at Imperial College and she is currently based at University College, London. Prasad has written for The Guardian, The Telegraph and Prospect Magazine, and her first book, Like A Virgin: How Science is redesigning the rules Of Sex, was published in 2012. She has written and presented TV and radio programmes, including Rewinding the Menopause and Quest for Virgin Birth for Radio 4, and Brave New World with Stephen Hawking for Channel 4 and the Discovery Channel.
Writer: Aarathi Prasad
Abridger: Pete Nichols
Reader: Sudha Bhuchar
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b07bt4t7)
Kate Beckinsale, Facebook, Catholic priests and marriage, Baroness Scotland
Kate Beckinsale joins Jenni to talk about her new period drama 'Love and Friendship' which is based on Jane Austen's novella 'Lady Susan'. She plays the deliciously scheming and manipulative widow, Lady Susan Vernon, who visits her in-laws to wait out the colourful rumours about her flirtations circulating through polite society.
Nicola Mendelsohn is Facebook's most senior employee outside the US and the figurehead of a new campaign which aims to give more UK women the practical support they need to start a business. Nicola talks about her career, the inner workings of Facebook and why 1 in 10 women in the UK want to start a business but don't.
In the fourth link of the series 'The Chain' Jane Garvey talks to Baroness Patricia Scotland, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth. She was nominated by Chief Crown Prosecutor Grace Ononiwu. Baroness Scotland and Grace worked together to tackle the issue of domestic violence when Baroness Scotland was Attorney General.
There are approximately 130 married Catholic priests in the UK who were once Anglicans. We hear from the wife of one who is concerned at how ill-equipped the church is to deal with families when the majority of their clergy are single men. Caroline Farrow and Father Alexander Lucie-Smith join Jenni.
THU 10:45 Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City (b07c2w5n)
Mary Ann in Autumn
Episode 4
Mary Ann in Autumn by Armistead Maupin
Episode Four
DeDe accompanies Mary Ann to her surgery. Jake makes a big decision.
Dramatised by Lin Coghlan
Producer Susan Roberts
Director Charlotte Riches
For more than three decades, Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series has blazed its own trail through popular culture-from ground-breaking newspaper serial to classic novel. Radio 4 are dramatising the full series of the Tales novels for the very first time.
THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (b07c2w5q)
Death From Above
Insight, analysis, description and colour. Today, death on a dusty highway in Baluchistan and what that might mean for neighbouring Afghanistan; how the people of Hiroshima, where America set off an atomic bomb in 1945, feel about the imminent visit by President Obama; the Swiss have never joined the European Union so why are they so interested in the result of the in/out referendum in Britain next month? We hear how Turkey's Kurdish population fits into the President Erdogan's plan to continue being the dominant force in the country's politics and finally there's an account of a day delightfully wasted on a slow train journey across the south-eastern tip of Australia.
THU 11:30 Blue Canvas: The Artist Miles Davis (b07c2w62)
Miles Davis remains one of the most influential musicians from the last century, despite his death 25 years ago. But what's less well known is that he dedicated the final years of his life to painting with the same fervent energy he had devoted to music.
"A painting is music you can see, and music is a painting you can hear." Miles Davis
To mark what would have been his 90th birthday, the New York artist Jo Gelbard, who became Miles Davis's companion during the last years of his life, tells the story of his little known life as a painter, alongside interviews with his friends and family.
The story begins with Davis' sudden stroke in 1982, when he took up art as a therapy after his illness. Soon after, he met Gelbard who was 24 years his junior and they embarked on a turbulent relationship which resulted in an extraordinary artistic collaboration.
Davis' son Erin recalls how his father always carried two things - his trumpet case and his paint brushes - and he sat surrounded by canvases in the apartment they shared, painting with a furious energy. We also hear from musician and painter Robert Wilburn III who spent alot of time with Davis during his final decades, discussing the relationship between art and music, rhythm, colour and space in his performances and his paintings. And the author George Cole, who wrote a book about the final years of the trumpeter's life, talks about the importance of his art.
Woven into the programme is a soundtrack of Davis' music, and clips from a never-before-broadcast interview with the writer Scott Gutterman, the author of a book about the trumpeter's art, and who recorded with Davis over several months shortly before he died in 1991.
Producer : Jo Wheeler
A Freewheel production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:00 News Summary (b07bt4t9)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 Home Front (b076cgjz)
26 May 1916 - Adam Wilson
On this day in 1916, the Bishop of Liverpool told conscientious objectors that they should leave the country if they refused to fight, and the Wilsons prepare to leave Halecot Farm.
Written by Richard Monks
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
THU 12:15 You and Yours (b07bt4tc)
FRSB, Bad gardeners
The collapse of the call centre GoGen led to an investigation by the Fundraising Standards Board, after reporters from the Daily Mail uncovered systematic pressuring of donors and a worrying attitude to vulnerable people. Macmillan, the British Red Cross, NSPCC and Oxfam were all failing to monitor the firm and have been criticised by the regulator. We'll talk to the chief executive of the FRSB and ask if self-regulation by charities is failing.
As the Chelsea Flower Show ends - what's available for less-skilled gardeners? One big supermarket is releasing a new line of easy care plants for busy people with roof gardens and terraces. We'll speak to Diarmuid Gavin live from the flower show and see if you can garden easily for less cash.
We'll also look at a New York-led idea to tackle the key cyber threats and a report into new build housing - what can you do if your property is badly built?
And we'll talk to the top thriller writer Mark Billingham about a crime that hasn't yet made its way into his work - the illegal downloading of ebooks.
THU 12:57 Weather (b07bt4tf)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 13:00 World at One (b07c2w64)
Analysis of news and current affairs.
THU 13:45 England: Made in the Middle (b07c3l52)
Episode 4
Historian Helen Castor looks at the radical middle - the revolutionary political gestures that have emanated from England's Midlands and redefined the rest of the country.
When some people hear the word Midlands, they think of Middle England, a socio-political label applied to people of traditional, rather conservative views. But despite lying geographically in the middle of the country, Midlanders as a tribe are not at all middling in character. The middle of England is far from Middle England.
The West Midlands was the engine of parliamentary and civic reform in the 19th century. Birmingham, proclaimed the Congregational minister Dr Robert Dale, was capable of deeds "as great as were done by Pisa, by Florence, by Venice in their triumphant days". One of those great deeds was the 1832 Reform Act, which created our modern electoral system. The foremost public campaigner in securing the reform of the franchise was the visionary, Brum-based economist Thomas Attwood. "The country owed Reform to Birmingham," declared Lord Durham, "and its salvation from revolution."
The East Midlands, home to the nation's great individualists - from Robin Hood via Arthur Seaton, the anti-hero of Alan Sillitoe's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, to Margaret Thatcher - presents a different case. The beginnings of the USA can be traced to the East Midlands' tradition of gritty, cussed individualism, and the Separatists who later sailed to the untamed expanses of North America aboard the Mayflower. The Notts-led Pilgrim Fathers established a colony there in 1620 and bequeathed several defining legacies to the modern nation - not least the so-called 'Mayflower Compact', which laid the basis for the first democratically elective government in the New World.
Produced by Robert Shore and Ashley Byrne.
A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 14:00 The Archers (b07c2t5t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 The Headline Ballads (b07c4m8j)
The Island, the Sea, the Volunteer and the Refugee
The Headline Ballads .
A new series in which Poets respond to stories underneath the world news headlines
1. The Island, the Sea, the Volunteer and the Refugee with poetry by Louise Wallwein
As the pressure in Greece from the humanitarian refugee crisis subsides, Poet Louise Wallwein who has a long-standing relationship with the Island of Kos, travels back to Kos Town where she worked as a volunteer helping arriving refugees during the past year . In the wake of an agreement with Turkey, as the numbers of migrants crossing the sea from Bodrum to Kos falls dramatically, she travels back to find out how the humanitarian crisis played out on their doorstep has affected the Islanders and to meet the refugees who are left behind.
The trip inspired Louise to write a ballad based on what she has heard and seen
Producer. Susan Roberts.
THU 15:00 Ramblings (b07c4m8l)
Series 33
The Essex Way
Clare Balding continues her series exploring epic walks, by joining four women as they take their final training walk before they set off to complete the eighty-two mile Essex Way, in just three days. Rebecca Rose and her friends have been training since Christmas to walk from Epping to Harwich. They're walking in aid of a local charity close to their hearts, Essex and Herts Air Ambulance. Four years ago Rebecca's daughter Katy's fiancé was involved in an accident at work, he was treated and air lifted to a London hospital by the local air ambulance. Although he sadly died, the family remain very grateful that they attended, as they know he received the best possible care. Katy was pregnant at the time and grandson, Oscar will be there to encourage the walkers at the beginning and end of the walk.
Producer Lucy Lunt.
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b07bt72k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (b07bt9ql)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b07c4m8n)
Whit Stillman and Jane Austen
With Francine Stock.
The director of Love And Friendship, Whit Stillman reveals why, of all Jane Austen's novels, he decided to adapt her unfinished novella Lady Susan. And why he's written a novel of his own screenplay.
The co-creator of Ali G and The Flight Of The Conchords TV series, James Bobin discusses the difficult of adapting Alice Through The Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll's well known but little read sequel.
Composer Neil Brand tells us the score about another classic opening scene - how Roy Budd's jazz soundtrack gave Michael Caine the edge in Get Carter.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b07bt4th)
GM plants; Svalbard Seed Vault; Directed Evolution; Dolphin Snot
The topic of GM plants raises strong opinions and many questions. This week, the Royal Society published answers to some of those questions. Adam speaks to Professor Ottoline Leyser, plant science expert and Head of the Sainsbury Lab in Cambridge. She was involved in writing the responses and Adam quizzes her on the possible issues with GM crops.
Institutes from around the world made deposits to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault this week. More than 8,000 varieties of crops from Germany, Thailand, New Zealand, and the World Vegetable Center arrived at the Vault, located on a remote Norwegian archipelago, to be stored deep within the permafrost. Reporter Marnie Chesterton was there to see it happen, and take a tour of this normally inaccessible place. The Vault is located within the Arctic Circle, and helps to protect the biodiversity of some of the world’s most important crops against climate change, war and natural disaster.
This week Professor Frances Arnold was awarded the Millennium Technology Prize; the Finnish version of the Nobel Prize. Her work is a process called Directed Evolution, and involves creating batches of mutant proteins to see if the mutations make them better at certain functions.
Dolphins use ultrasound to echolocate. Until recently, scientists did not quite know how. Making ultrasonic noises normally requires some hard surfaces such as metal, and dolphins don’t have metal in their blowholes. Acoustic scientists Aaron Thode at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego thinks he’s solved this conundrum, and it involves snot.
Producer: Jen Whyntie
THU 17:00 PM (b07bt4tk)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b07bt4tp)
Focus of EU referendum campaign shifts to immigration
THU 18:30 Paul Sinha's History Revision (b07c4tq7)
Series 2
Women
Paul looks at the forgotten women of history. From warriors to inventors to civil rights activists, Paul unearths some stories, that for reasons of sexism and patriarchy, we never got told about at school. You're welcome, ladies.
Paul Sinha returns for a second series of the show that uncovers the fascinating stories that we've forgotten in our onward march of progress. In the last series we learned how Alexander Graham Bell did NOT invent the telephone, and that the World Cup final of 2014 could only have happened because of the 1415 invasion of Morocco.
"Sinha's gift for finding humour in it all makes him worth a listen" - The Telegraph
Written and performed by Paul Sinha
Produced by Ed Morrish
A BBC Radio Comedy Production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2016.
THU 19:00 The Archers (b07c4tq9)
Kenton and Jolene are looking forward to a busy bank holiday weekend. Kenton's order of "The Elves of Ambridge" t-shirts have arrived. He's hoping they'll sell well but Jolene has heard from Eddie that the elves' days in the Millennium Wood may be numbered. Jolene notes that being on the shortlists for Best Use of Local Ingredients and Family Dining at the Borchester Food and Drink Awards will boost trade. They're up against Fallon's Tea Room in the former category. Jolene says making the shortlists is entirely thanks to Wayne. She asks Kenton is they should make him permanent but Kenton is not sure.
Jennifer and Lilian go dress shopping in Cheltenham for Brian and Jennifer's ruby wedding anniversary party. On their way the sisters think about Helen, her new baby and the burden on Pat and Tony. Their thoughts turn to Jennifer and Brian's fortieth wedding anniversary party. Miranda is unable to attend and they wonder on Justin and Miranda's relationship. Jennifer says it's wonderful to see the old Lilian back; Justin has brought a sparkle back to her eye.
Kenton is flustered by Wayne's constant talk of his new girlfriend Beverley. He quizzes Jolene about her. What does Jolene think about the relationship? Does Beverley look like Jolene? What's her surname? Jolene is caught on the hop and tells Kenton Beverley's surname is - Drains! Kenton continues to be curious about Beverley. As soon as she has a moment Jolene tells Wayne he needs to drop the Beverley story, Kenton's on to him.
THU 19:15 Front Row (b07bt4tz)
Wilko Johnson, Romeo and Juliet review, Walter de Maria
Wilko Johnson, the former Dr Feelgood guitarist and songwriter, was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2013. In his new book, Don't You Leave Me Here: My Life, he takes stock of his life following an 11-hour, life-saving operation and looks forward to a future he wasn't expecting. Wilko Johnson discusses his extraordinary and unexpected change of fortune.
Kenneth Branagh's latest play in his year-long season at the Garrick Theatre is Romeo and Juliet. Lily James and Richard Madden star as the eponymous lovers, with Derek Jacobi as Mercutio and Meera Syal as the Nurse. Susannah Clapp reviews.
The late American artist Walter De Maria is best known for his large-scale works, including The Lightning Field, a grid of 400 stainless steel poles in the New Mexico desert, and The Vertical Earth Kilometer, a brass rod that extends 1 kilometre into the ground in the German city of Kassel. John Wilson talks to De Maria's assistant and former studio manager Elizabeth Childress and curator Kara Vander Weg about the artist's first solo exhibition in the UK.
Presenter: John Wilson
Producer: Rachel Simpson.
THU 19:45 Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City (b07c2w5n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (b07c4tqc)
The New IRA
Northern Ireland-related terrorism now represents a “substantial” threat to Great Britain, according to MI5 - the security service. It believes that a terrorist attack is a "strong possibility" in Britain and "highly likely" in Northern Ireland itself. This reflects the continuing threat from dissident republicans.
This week David Aaronovitch asks who are the New IRA?
Joining him in The Briefing Room:
Suzanne Breen - journalist at the Belfast Telegraph
Henry McDonald - Ireland correspondent at The Guardian
Peter Taylor - the writer and veteran BBC journalist
Producer: Joe Kent, Researcher: Alex Burton, Editor: Innes Bowen
(Image: Nationalist youths protest in their home town of Lurgan, Northern Ireland. Credit: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty)
THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (b07c4tqf)
EU Referendum
What does EU membership mean for UK business and how might that change if Britain votes to leave? Business leaders join Evan Davis to discuss how trade agreements and red tape can both help and hinder corporate success. What can Switzerland teach us about trading with Europe and beyond, despite being outside the EU?
Guests:
Jan Atteslander, EconomieSuisse
Julia Gash, CEO, Bidbi
Christopher Nieper, Managing Director, David Nieper
Jayne-Anne Gadhia, CEO, Virgin Money
Jon Moynihan, Chairman, Ipex Capital
Producer: Sally Abrahams.
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b07bt4th)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (b07c2w5j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 21:58 Weather (b07bt4v1)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b07bt4v3)
Trump 'clinches Republican nomination'
As Donald Trump clinches the Republican Party nomination for the Presidential election we speak to a delegate who's tipped the property tycoon over the line. Also are UK special forces in Libya. If so do the Libyans want them there and why has Parliament not been told? And as the family of the French racing driver, Jules Bianchi, sue Formula One, saying his death was avoidable, we speak to their lawyer.
Pic: John Trandem, North Dakota Republican delegate, and Donald Trump. (Credit: AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast).
THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b07c4vt4)
The Bricks That Built the Houses
The Heist
Award-winning poet and rapper Kate Tempest reads from her novel, a tale of desire, ambition and hedonism, set among south-east London's millennials today.
Harry and Leon are on their way to a big drug deal, hoping it'll be one of their last. But their usual contact is in jail, and things don't feel quite right.
Written and read by Mercury Prize-nominated Kate Tempest, who won the Ted Hughes Prize for poetry in 2013.
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Julian Wilkinson.
THU 23:00 52 First Impressions with David Quantick (b07c4vt6)
Series 2
Episode 4
Journalist and comedy writer David Quantick has met and interviewed hundreds of people – what were his first impressions, how have they changed and does it all matter?
This week, stories about Paul Welller, soap operas and Sting, among others.
Written and Presented by: David Quantick
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (b07c4vtb)
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster as MPs raise concerns over a plan to cut pension benefits to help save Tata Steel's UK operations and there is a clash over the state of the economy.
Ministers face pressure for the threat of deportation to be lift from an Australian family who have lived in Scotland since 2011 and the Defence Secretary faces questions over British airstrikes on the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
FRIDAY 27 MAY 2016
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b07bt4w8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b07c2w5l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b07d2z8d)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b07d2z8g)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b07d2z8j)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b07d2z8l)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b07d7b2m)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with the former moderator of the Church of Scotland's General Assembly, the Very Rev John Chalmers.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b07d3211)
Norway - farming without EU subsidies, Scottish tea at Chelsea, Anaerobic digesters
Whatever the political arguments for being in or out of Europe, much of the debate boils down to money. And nearly 40% of the entire European Union budget is spent on supporting farmers in the form of subsidies. So would leaving the EU mean the cash would stop flowing? And if it did, how might farmers get on? Paul Murphy, who's the BBC's Rural Affairs Correspondent in the North East of England, has been to visit Norwegian farmers to find out how they fare without EU subsidies.
Most of the tea we drink is imported from China and India but there's a burgeoning British tea industry. It's grown from Devon and Cornwall in the south up as far as Mull and Perthshire in Scotland, and there are now five commercial tea gardens or plantations in the UK. With growers celebrating a bumper harvest this year, Caz Graham has been to south west Scotland to find out why this year's crop has been so good - and how a tea called Garrocher Grey is the flavour of the week in Chelsea.
Also, anaerobic digesters - loved by some, opposed by others. As part of Farming Today's collaboration with Radio 4's You and Yours programme, Rajeev Gupta meets North Yorkshire cattle farmer John Douglas to see the plant which he says helps him stay in business.
Produced by Mark Smalley.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03k6rrj)
Dipper
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
David Attenborough presents the dipper. On a cold winter's day when few birds are singing, the bright rambling song of a dipper by a rushing stream is always a surprise. Dippers sing in winter because that's when the males begin marking out their stretch of water, they're early breeders.
FRI 06:00 Today (b07ctm1d)
Morning news and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b07bt72r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b07c56hs)
In the Bonesetter's Waiting Room
Episode 5
Aarathi Prasad explores the ancient and modern in Indian medicine. Read by Sudha Bhuchar.
Indian Medicine is a fascinating mix of the ancient and the modern. From Ayurvedic treatments, which predate the Common Era, to the allopathic (Western) medicine which now operates in parallel. Aarathi Prasad takes us through the myriad medicinal worlds - from a bonesetters' clinic in Hyderabad, where breaks but not fractures are reset, via a shrine in the Dharavi megaslum (just outside of Mumbai) where the goddess Kali rules, to a fish doctor in Secunderabad who makes patients swallow live fish and a remarkable neuroscientist, Pawan Sinha, whose venture 'Project Prakash' has helped thousands of Indian children to see for the first time.
Episode 5: Project Prakash, named after the Sanskrit word for light, has helped to bring vision to thousands of children.
Aarathi Prasad is a writer and geneticist. Her PhD was in molecular genetics at Imperial College and she is currently based at University College, London. Prasad has written for The Guardian, The Telegraph and Prospect Magazine, and her first book, Like A Virgin: How Science is redesigning the rules Of Sex, was published in 2012. She has written and presented TV and radio programmes, including Rewinding the Menopause and Quest for Virgin Birth for Radio 4, and Brave New World with Stephen Hawking for Channel 4 and the Discovery Channel.
Writer: Aarathi Prasad
Abridger: Pete Nichols
Reader: Sudha Bhuchar
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b07bt4wd)
Meera Syal, Khadija Ismayilova
And for the final part of our Chain Baroness Scotland has chosen Italian writer and lawyer, Simonetta Agnello Hornby. Renowned for starting a pioneering solicitors' firm in Brixton in 1979, Simonetta has made a huge impact in the fields of child care. We'll hear how, after thirty years in the law, she then became a successful novelist.
The list of Meera Syal's professions include comedian, writer, playwright, singer, journalist, producer and actor. Meera talks about her latest theatre role in London's West End as Nurse in Romeo and Juliet.
Khadija Ismayilova was released from prison on Wednesday. She was an investigative journalist known for her revelations of corruption in the Azerbaijani government and presidential family. In March of this year, Amal Clooney filed a case to the European Court of Human Rights on her behalf. Khadija speaks to Jenni.
We speak to Human Rights Watch leading researcher in Nigeria, Mausi Segun, about the ongoing fight against Boko Haram, the commitment of the Nigerian government to return the girls who were kidnapped from Chibok in 2014, and the treatment they recieve when they return home.
Presenter: Jenni Murray
Producer: Kirsty Starkey.
FRI 10:45 Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City (b07c56hv)
Mary Ann in Autumn
Episode 5
Mary Ann in Autumn by Armistead Maupin
Episode Five
Mary Ann has an unwelcome encounter with a presence from her past. Shawna is upset by Michael's revelation.
Dramatised by Lin Coghlan
Producer Susan Roberts
Director Charlotte Riches
For more than three decades, Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series has blazed a trail through popular culture-from ground-breaking newspaper serial to classic novel. Radio 4 are dramatising the full series of the Tales novels for the very first time.
FRI 11:00 St Helena - Joining the Rest of Us (b07c56hz)
The Sea
No quick way in or out - until the construction of the new airport, there was only one way in and out of St Helena, the Royal Mail Ship - six day voyage from Cape Town. So what happens when someone is sick on the island?
As the island's first airport nears completion, Joe Hollins, is also reaching the end of his contract as Chief Veterinary Officer. He concludes his record of the last days of the lonely island - diving its pristine waters, completing his final surgical operations, and talking to the 'Saints' who work on the retiring boat about the changes that will come as the island is connected to the rest of the world for the first time.
Producer: Sara Jane Hall.
FRI 11:30 Michael Fabbri's Dyslexicon (b07c56j3)
School Days
Comedian Michael Fabbri is dyslexic, but this programme is not a message of hope and encouragement.
This programme is a catalogue of mistakes and challenges that Michael has faced throughout his life.
This hilarious account of his school years details the mental scarring of being forced to play Romeo and being confronted with surprise bible readings.
First of two programmes written by Michael Fabbri.
A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in May 2016.
FRI 12:00 News Summary (b07bt4wg)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Home Front (b076cgks)
27 May 1916 - Kitty Lumley
On this day in 1916, President Wilson advocated the formation of an Association of Nations to ensure future peace, and at Halecot Farm, relations are troubled.
Written by Richard Monks
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
SECRET SHAKESPEARE
A Shakespeare quote is hidden in each Home Front episode that is set in 1916. These were first broadcast in 2016, the 400th anniversary year of the playwright's death. Can you spot them all?
FRI 12:15 You and Yours (b07bt4wj)
Care home inspections, Pension fees, Energy from sweets
Are the checks on care homes going the way the Care Quality Commission had planned?
Have you updated to windows 10? We hear from people who says they've been 'tricked' into updating?
The man who took on parking charges - and is now a local hero.
Are pension fees as fair as they could be?
And the UK is becoming a world leader in turning waste into energy. Hear how it's being done.
PRESENTER: PETER WHITE
PRODUCER: RAJEEV GUPTA.
FRI 12:57 Weather (b07bt4wn)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 13:00 World at One (b07clktf)
Analysis of news & current affairs with Mark Mardell. Both sides in the EU referendum campaign are using misleading figures, according to a scathing Treasury Committee report. We visit the front line in Ukraine, where fighting still rages. And are Muslim women in England and Wales facing discrimination if they abide by the rulings of Sharia law councils?
FRI 13:45 England: Made in the Middle (b07c56j6)
Episode 5
Historian Helen Castor Helen Castor on why the action in Shakespeare's history plays takes place in the Midlands.
Generations of children have learned much English history from the great Midlander William Shakespeare. Much of the action in his history plays takes place in the Midlands. That's only to be expected, since much of our history has been made there.
Many of the decisive battles in English history were fought on Midland soil. In the Civil War, Charles I raised his standard at Nottingham and the conflict was settled to all military intents and purposes at Naseby in Northamptonshire. The climax of Shakespeare's Richard III - the culmination of the Wars of the Roses, fought between the Houses of York and Lancaster but which, geographically, had little to do with the North - famously takes place at Bosworth Field, in South Leicestershire.
Helen Castor puts the middle back in England's history by looking at figures such as Richard III, whose bones were recently discovered under a car park in Leicester. Newspapers were full of the arguments to have the bones of this 'vilified Yorkshireman' returned to 'God's own country'. But Richard was a Midlander. As one linguistic expert points out, evidence suggests that he spoke with a Brummie accent.
And then of course there's the foremost Midlander, Shakespeare, who from John of Gaunt's 'this England' speech in Richard II to King Harry's pre-Agincourt rallying cry in Henry V, has provided us with the most resonant language in which to express ourselves in times of both tragedy and delight. The Midland Bard, in all his variety, is England.
Produced by Robert Shore and Ashley Byrne
A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (b07c4tq9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (b07c56j8)
Brotherhood
Brotherhood by Furquan Akhtar
Yousaf returns North after five years away. He wants to repair his relationship with his brother and mother. But his brother Kasim has changed. He's come under the influence of a charismatic friend with radical views. Why is Yousaf back? And why is he so interested in Kasim's friend? A contemporary thriller which asks the question when does dissent tip into support for terrorism.
Director/Producer Gary Brown
Furquan Akhtar is a former winner of the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award for new writing in the North. He has recently written two episodes of the acclaimed children's series 'Wolfblood' and is currently developing series for TV.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b07c56jb)
Chelsea Special - Geffrye Museum
Eric Robson hosts a Chelsea Special from the Geffrye Museum, London. Joining him on the panel are Bunny Guinness, Anne Swithinbank, and Matt Biggs
Produced by Dan Cocker
Assistant producer: Laurence Bassett
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:45 Life at Absolute Zero (b07c56w7)
Series 1
There's No Need to Shout
Lynne Truss reads the first of eight stories about the inhabitants of Meridian Cliffs, a morose and wind-battered town on the South coast of England which lies, curiously, at longitude 0 degrees 0 minutes west, and also 0 degrees 0 minutes east.
Due to rampant coastal erosion, the town is literally shrinking in size. One longstanding resident is Sarah Birkett, who dreams of a small improvement in her life, involving shiny bobbins and a Daniel Craig calendar, open at August.
Written by Lynne Truss
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (b07c56w9)
Burt Kwouk, Michael Ratner, Sarah Corp, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, Jock Scot
Matthew Bannister on
The actor Burt Kwouk, best known for playing Inspector Clouseau's manservant Cato in the Pink Panther films.
The human rights lawyer Michael Ratner, who won the right for detainees at Guantanamo Bay to challenge their imprisonment in court.
Sarah Corp, the ITN producer who organised coverage of many significant international events,
Mullah Akhtar Mansour, leader of the Taliban
And Jock Scot, punk poet, Bohemian and friend of the Clash. Their former manager Kosmo Vinyl pays tribute.
FRI 16:30 Feedback (b07ctlxv)
Too much Mourinho
Roger Bolton discusses listener reaction to programmes on BBC radio.
This week, sports journalists have been kept particularly busy with speculation over Jose Mourinho's arrival as the new manager of Manchester United. But should the story have been headline news on BBC Radio 4? The Editor of the BBC Radio Newsroom, Richard Clark, responds to listeners' complaints.
Radio 4's School Drama has earned a huge amount of praise - and also generated a degree of drama. The four-part series, starring Tom Hollander, concerned a failing state school trying to turn around its prospects with a production of Romeo and Juliet. The drama was recorded at a real school, with pupils and teachers playing roles. But some listeners are asking why this so-called failing school was actually staged at a fee-paying grammar. Director John Dryden discusses that decision.
Every three months, the broadcast media goes slightly mad over RAJAR. It stands for Radio Joint Audience Research and they measure live radio listening across the UK. The quarterly figures can be good or bad news for BBC Radio controllers but are they still relevant as more and more of us engage with audio through podcasts, catch up and YouTube? Roger speaks to Lyndsay Ferrigan from RAJAR.
For 20 years, BBC Radio 3 has kept listeners across 12 European countries company with its Through the Night programme. The programme has the same music but with different presenters speaking their own languages to local listeners. Feedback speaks to its Slovenian presenter and one of its Romanian listeners, as well as to the Radio 3 editor Paul Frankl.
Producer: Kate Dixon
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (b07c59lk)
Sarfraz and Bridget - A Family Festival
Fi Glover introduces a conversation between a couple who met 8 years ago on the train home after the Festival and who have been back every year since, now with their daughter. 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 (b07bt4ws)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b07bt4wv)
Treasury Select Committee criticises claims made by both Remain and Vote Leave
FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (b07c59lm)
Series 90
Episode 7
Susan Calman, Dane Baptiste, Holly Walsh and Francis Wheen are Miles' guests in the long-running satirical quiz of the week's news.
Producer: Paul Sheehan.
A BBC Studios Production.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (b07c59lp)
Peggy and Tony visit Helen before she is transferred back to the mother and baby unit from hospital. Breastfeeding continues to be a struggle for Helen and when Peggy suggests she gives it another try Helen snaps at Peggy and then is immediately remorseful. Later, Peggy tells Tony she thinks Helen is finding it hard to bond with the baby. They must convince her that her son is more Archer than Titchener.
Kirsty and Tom make the final touches to the shop and open it for the first time in almost two months. She mentions that Jazzer is around helping Fallon prepare for the Jumble Trail but he was nervous about setting foot on Bridge Farm. Tom says it's not a lifetime ban. Kirsty points out that making fun of a situation is Jazzer's way of coping. Can Tom let sleeping pigs lie? Jazzer finds Tom feeding the pigs. They talk awkwardly about the pigs being sold and Jazzer suggests there might be a way to keep them. They make up and Jazzer gets straight back to work.
Helen puts her baby in a colourful sleep suit that Pat sent for his first journey into the outside world. Helen can register the birth at the mother and baby unit. And she has decided on a name. He will be John Anthony Archer, after Helen's older brother and father and he'll be known as Jack, like her gran's late husband Jack Woolley: The names of three good men.
FRI 19:15 Front Row (b07bt4wx)
From Hay: Charlotte Church, Tracy Chevalier and Lionel Shriver, YA Fiction, Welsh-Appalachian Music Mashup
Singer-songwriter Charlotte Church discusses her 'musical fairy tale' which receives its premier next weekend at the inaugural Festival of Voice in Cardiff. The Last Mermaid is inspired by The Little Mermaid and tackles the challenging issues facing our world.
Tracy Chevalier has just edited a collection of short stories inspired by the line, 'Reader I Married Him' from Jane Eyre. She and Lionel Shriver, who's contributed, discuss the importance of one of the most famous lines in literature.
The Young Adult fiction genre has been a major growth area in publishing over the last decade and as more titles flood the market this year, 3 of the top selling YA authors, Juno Dawson, Patrick Ness, Holly Smale join John Wilson to discuss what defines this area of fiction and where it allows them to go as writers that adult fiction and children's doesn't.
Welsh folk musician and BBC Wales presenter, Frank Hennessy, teams up with fellow Hennessys band mate, Iolo Jones, and Appalachian musicians Rebecca Branson Jones and Trevor McKenzie to play the world premier of a song that began life as a Welsh hymn and morphed into a Bluegrass Gospel song.
FRI 19:45 Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City (b07c56hv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b07c59lr)
Bronwen Maddox, Tim Martin, Vicky Pryce, Bruno Waterfield
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from the BBC Radio Theatre in London. On the panel are the Editor of Prospect magazine Bronwen Maddox, the founder and chairman of the pub chain J D Wetherspoon Tim Martin, the Greek born economist Vicky Pryce, and Bruno Waterfield the Brussels correspondent for The Times. Together they discuss a range of topics related to the forthcoming EU Referendum.
Producer Lisa Jenkinson.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b07c59lt)
I Gave It All Away
Will Self argues that instead of holding onto money until old age, we should give children their inheritance when they're most in need of it.
"Forget the old right/left, rich/poor division" he says, "nowadays the greatest divergence lies between the old and the young".
And he asks how can we in conscience go on denying the young the opportunity to clear up the mess we've ? for the most part quite inadvertently ? created for them. "Give it all away!" is his plea.
Producer: Adele Armstrong.
FRI 21:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b076cgwr)
23-27 May 1916
In a week when President Wilson advocated the formation of an Association of Nations to ensure future peace, relations in Ashburton are very troubled.
Written by Richard Monks
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Composer: Matthew Strachan
Consultant Historian: Maggie Andrews.
FRI 21:58 Weather (b07bt4wz)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b07bt4x1)
Health experts call for Rio Olympics to move
The risk of Zika to athletes; Operation Condor and the Christian view of Brexit. Picture: Worker at Olympics, Credit: Reuters.
FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b07c59lw)
The Bricks That Built the Houses
Everybody Down
Award-winning poet and rapper Kate Tempest reads the final part of her novel. Set among the disenfranchised but still dreaming 20-somethings of London now, it's a tale of desire, drugs and ambition.
Today: threats and revelations at Pete's surprise party as Harry, Pete and Becky, not to mention her uncles Ron and Rags, are turn up to celebrate.
Written and read by Mercury Prize-nominated Kate Tempest, who won the Ted Hughes Prize for poetry in 2013.
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Julian Wilkinson.
FRI 23:00 Woman's Hour (b07c59ly)
Late Night Woman's Hour
Lauren Laverne and guests discuss the origins and pitfalls of stereotypes of women.
With Joanne Harris, best-selling author of Chocolat who has written about myth and fairy tales.
Lisa Mckenzie, a sociologist at the London School of Economics, who has explored portrayals of working class women
Emma Dabiri, teaching fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, who has studied what people mean by the term 'mixed-race' in Britain today.
Jane Cunningham, founder of advertising and marketing consultancy Pretty Little Head.
The broadcast edition of this programme will be available on Iplayer soon after transmission. A longer version is available now as a podcast.
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (b07d484d)
Mark D'Arcy reports from Westminster.
FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (b07c59m2)
Clara and Matthew - Art and Life
Fi Glover introduces a conversation between artists revelling in the freedom of the 'imaginarium' and the spontaneity afforded by the Festival. Another conversation 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.