SATURDAY 29 OCTOBER 2016
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (b07zxh66)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
SAT 00:30 Book of the Week (b080j3fp)
Keeping On Keeping On, 2009
Alan Bennett reads extracts from his recently published diaries.
Following on from Alan Bennett's bestselling, award-winning prose collections Writing Home and Untold Stories, Keeping On Keeping On is a newly-published third anthology featuring his unique observations, recollections and reminiscences.
In these entries, covering the years 2005 to 2014, Bennett looks back on a packed decade that included writing four highly-acclaimed plays - The Habit of Art, People, Hymn and Cocktail Sticks, all of which premiered at the National Theatre - as well as the screenplays for the hit films of The History Boys and The Lady in the Van.
In addition, he reflects on his 25 years of friendship and collaboration with director Nicholas Hytner, life with his partner Rupert Thomas and, radical views notwithstanding, his status as 'kindly, cosy and essentially harmless' - a view which these diaries do their best to disprove.
Today Alan presents writings to the Bodleian Library and describes the long process of finding a sound effect for W H Auden breaking wind
Abridged and produced by Gordon House.
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b07zxh68)
The latest shipping forecast.
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b07zxh6b)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
5.20am.
SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b07zxh6d)
The latest shipping forecast.
SAT 05:30 News Briefing (b07zxh6g)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b08020rn)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Gopinder Kaur Sagoo.
SAT 05:45 iPM (b08020rq)
'If dad had exercised he might still be alive.' A listener's angry with her late father. With Eddie Mair and Jennifer Tracey. Plus Newsnight's John Sweeney reads the Your News bulletin. iPM@bbc.co.uk.
SAT 06:00 News and Papers (b07zxh6j)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SAT 06:04 Weather (b07zxh6l)
The latest weather forecast.
SAT 06:07 Open Country (b08015rt)
Off Grid in Mid-Wales
Guest presenter Ian Marchant meets people who live off-grid in his part of the world, near Presteigne in mid-Wales.
There's Bob, who started his off-grid life on the hippy trail in the sixties, driving over-land to Afghanistan and bringing back the first Afghan coats to the London fashion scene. Now he lives in a wood, still making jewellery and living in his van. For him, there's adventure in every aspect of his life, even the washing up, especially if you have to do it in 'horizontal snow'.
Goffee-the-Clown has built himself an idyllic cottage, but somehow he can't bring himself to move in. He prefers the simplicity of his pale blue retro caravan with its wood-burner and collection of spider-webs, idyllically situated on the bank of the River Usk.
There are the Hoopers, a family of four who run an efficient small-holding as carbon-lightly and self sufficiently as is possible. They did have a brief spell in a house, but despite the fascinations of the washing machine, they were delighted to be back living off-grid up a mountain.
And there's Briar, who has just moved in to her new home, a yurt she has built herself, snugly insulated with duvets and brightly-coloured rugs and fabrics. Everything she needs is to hand, and there's water from the spring nearby. Knowing she can rely on her own strength and skill to live anywhere makes her happy and gives her confidence. And the cost? This luxurious construction cost her roughly twenty quid to build.
Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery.
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (b07zxh6n)
Farming Today This Week
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. Presented by Sybil Ruscoe and produced by Vernon Harwood.
SAT 06:57 Weather (b07zxh6q)
The latest weather forecast.
SAT 07:00 Today (b080mhd2)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (b07zxh6s)
Tony Robinson
Actor and broadcaster Tony Robison joins Aasmah Mir and Rev. Richard Coles to talk about his life onstage, the impact of playing Baldrick, and the unusual way his love of history developed.
Gemma-Louise Stevenson shares the art of wheelchair dancing.
Saturday Live Listener Dr.Ciaran O'Keeffe reveals how Ghostbusters inspired him to become a Parapsychologist.
Writer Jonathan Harvey meets up with JP Devlin and explains why he's decided to return to his hometown of Liverpool.
Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero shares her Inheritance Tracks. She has chosen The Schumann Fantasie performed by Clifford Curzon and Quintet Opus 18 by Mieczyslaw Weinberg, performed by Borodin Quartet
NASA Astronaut Mike Massimino talks about venturing into space, repairing the Hubble Telescope and his intergalactic playlist.
Tony Robinson's autobiography No Cunning Plan is out now.
Jonathan Harvey's latest novel The History of Us is out now.
Mike Massimino's book Spaceman: An Astronaut's Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe is out now.
Producer: Claire Bartleet
Editor: Karen Dalziel.
SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (b080mhd4)
Series 14, Stockwell
Jay Rayner and his panel of culinary experts visit Stockwell in London. Joining Jay are food historian Dr Annie Gray, 2010 Masterchef winner and restaurateur Tim Anderson, writer and cook Lizzie Mabbott, and Catalan-inspired chef Rachel McCormack.
This week the panel discuss how to make the perfect custard tart, how to navigate port varieties and the best way to preserve mushrooms.
We also debate whether it's worth cooking with your Halloween pumpkin, help a questioner with a glut of parsnips and share memorable breakfast experiences.
Produced by Darby Dorras
Assistant producer: Hester Cant
Food consultant: Anna Colquhoun
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 11:00 Week in Westminster (b081b0b8)
Tom Newton Dunn of The Sun looks behind the scenes at Westminster.
The editor is Peter Mulligan.
SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (b07zxh6v)
Reports from writers and journalists around the world. Presented by Kate Adie.
SAT 12:00 News Summary (b07zxh6x)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 12:04 Money Box (b080mhd6)
Interest-only mortgages
In 2014, excluding buy-to-let, there were around 2.8 million interest-only mortgages outstanding within the UK. Borrowers pay interest on the loan, then the capital has to be paid back when the mortgage term ends.
The popularity of that type of mortgage has fallen significantly over the years, however most lenders will have borrowers still on those deals. Some of those customers may find themselves in a situation where they don't have a plan in place to repay the outstanding capital. We hear from Christine who is facing a £150,000 repayment after her interest-only deal with Santander expired. Dean Mirfin, Group and Technical Director with Key Retirement discusses the wider issues around interest-only mortgages and potential options that may be available for people who are unable to repay.
Following requests from several Money Box listeners, we look at the problems they've experienced following a revamp of the John Lewis Partnership Credit Card website.
The latest figures from HMRC reveal that since the start of pension freedom in April 2015, half a million people have withdrawn £7.6 billion from their pension funds. It comes as separate figures suggest that the number of reported pension fraud losses is higher that previous estimates. How are people spending their drawdowns and what are the good and bad consequences of pension freedom? Michelle Cracknell, Chief Executive of the Pensions Advisory Service and Tom Selby, Senior Analyst at AJ Bell discuss.
Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director of Age UK outlines the charity's investigation into the problems and fears older tenants face when it comes to challenging their poor living conditions. It wants more protection for vulnerable older private renters.
SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (b0801nv6)
Susan Calman, Francis Wheen, Mark steel and Vicki Pepperdine are on the panel joining Miles Jupp for the last in the current series of the long-running satirical quiz of the week's news.
Producer: Paul Sheehan.
A BBC Studios Production.
SAT 12:57 Weather (b07zxh6z)
The latest weather forecast.
SAT 13:00 News (b07zxh71)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (b0801nvj)
John McGrane, Nuala McKeever, Nuala O'Loan, Jeff Peel
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from St Patrick's Church of Ireland Cathedral in Armagh with the Director General of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce John McGrane, the actress and writer Nuala McKeever, cross bench peer and policing expert Baroness O'Loan and the economist and businessman Jeff Peel.
SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (b07zxh73)
Any Answers after the Saturday broadcast of Any Questions? Lines open at 1230
Call 03700 100 444. Email any.answers@bbc.co.uk. Tweet,#BBCAQ. Follow us @bbcanyquestions.
Presented by Julian Worricker.
SAT 14:30 Blood, Sex and Money by Emile Zola (b080mhd8)
Money, Apocalypse
Blood, Sex and Money by Emile Zola: Series 3 Money
Apocalypse by Martin Jameson
The forces of Blood, Sex and Money come to violent fruition in the author's visceral exploration of the Franco Prussian War. Precipitated in the corridors of power, the war is for ordinary men to fight. Land worker Jean Macquart returns to the army where he makes an unlikely emotional connection with a young soldier under his command. Meanwhile, his Grandmother is on the brink of escape from the asylum at Tulettes.
Director/Producer Gary Brown.
SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (b07zxh75)
Alexandra Schulman, UN Women, Felicity Kendal
We discuss why the UN decided to appoint the comic book character Wonder Woman as the gender equality ambassador last week. The decision has divided UN staff. So does this reflect on a deeper disconnect with gender overall? We hear from the BBC UN New York Correspondent Nick Bryant and former Chief Advisor on Peace and Security at U.N. Women Anne Marie Goetz.
Alexander Schulman has been the editor of Vogue in the UK for 24 years. In the magazine's century year she's decided to publish her diary of her day to day life at the magazine. She tells us why.
We discuss who could be on the Power list from the world of health with Susan Bewley, the Professor of Women's health at King's College London, and with Sunetra Gupta, the Professor of Theoretical Epidemiology at the University of Oxford.
Should domestic violence organisations be solely run by women or should men be included too? We discuss the issue with Polly Neate the CEO of Women's Aid in England and Chris Murphy the Executive Director of the organisation Committed to Ending Abuse (CEA).
Felicity Kendal stars as Charlotte Bartlett in Adrian Noble's tour of a Room With a View. She discusses her role as the spinster chaperone and why she believes men loved her character Barbara Goode in the Good Life.
We speak to Pakistan's top business woman Seema Aziz about how she founded the country's first fashion chain and runs more than 250 schools across the country.
We hear about the latest play from the Open Class Theatre company who have devised a play with women prisoners in HMP Low Newton. We hear from the writer and Open Clasp Founder Catrina Mchugh and from the former prisoner Cheryl Byron.
Presented by Jenni Murray
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Jane Thurlow.
SAT 17:00 PM (b07zxh77)
Saturday PM
Full coverage of the day's news.
SAT 17:30 The Bottom Line (b08018qn)
Selling Your Corporate Baby
Starting a business is often compared to bringing up a baby, and with good reason: it's costly, gives you sleepless nights and requires your attention during every waking moment. But what happens when it is time sell the business you have nurtured? Three successful entrepreneurs talk to Evan Davis about the feelings of relief and regret which can accompany selling off a business.
GUESTS
Liz Earle, Co-founder of Liz Earle Naturally Active Skincare
William Kendall, Chairman, Cawston Press
Jules Coleman, Co-founder of Hassle.com.
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b07zxh79)
The latest shipping forecast.
SAT 17:57 Weather (b07zxh7c)
The latest weather forecast.
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b07zxh7f)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (b07zxh7h)
Clive Anderson, Tom Allen, Ian Rankin, Anne-Marie Duff, James Grieve, The Marcus King Band, Nick Harper
Clive Anderson and Tom Allen are joined by Ian Rankin, Anne-Marie Duff, Richard Gadd and James Grieve for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from The Marcus King Band and Nick Harper.
Producer: Sukey Firth.
SAT 19:00 Profile (b080mhp2)
Glenda Jackson
As Glenda Jackson returns to the West End stage, Mark Coles profiles the Oscar-winning actor and former Labour MP, with contributions from her son Dan Hodges, Hollywood actor George Segal and legendary theatre director Peter Brook.
Producer Smita Patel
Researcher Sarah Shebbeare.
SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (b07zxh7k)
Amadeus, Lo and Behold, A Horse Walks Into A Bar, Paul Nash, The Moonstone
There's a revival of Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus at London's National Theatre. It's the story of Mozart's supposed rivalry with fellow composer Salieri and it has a live orchestra on stage accompanying and acting in the play
Werner Herzog's latest film Lo and Behold considers the history and future, the successes and failures of the world wide web
Israeli author David Grossman's novel A Horse Walks Into A Bar is a story about an edgy stand-up comedian who's playing strange confessional games with his audience
Tate Britain has an exhibition of the work of Paul Nash, from his times as a war artist in both world wars and his surrealist paintings to his less well known assemblages
The BBC's new period drama has been in the planning stages for a long time; The Moonstone is based on Wilkie Collins' novel, acknowledged as the first and greatest of English Detective novels.
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Abigail Morris, Rajan Datar and Maev Kennedy. The producer is Oliver Jones.
SAT 20:00 The Reith Lectures (b07zz5mf)
Kwame Anthony Appiah: Mistaken Identities, Country
The philosopher and cultural theorist Kwame Anthony Appiah argues against a mythical, romantic view of nationhood, saying instead it should rest on a commitment to shared values.
He explores the history of the idea, born in the 19th century, that there are peoples who are bound together by an ancient common spirit and that each of these nations is entitled to its own state. He says this idea is a mistaken one, illustrating his argument through the life story of the writer who took the pen name Italo Svevo - meaning literally Italian Swabian. He was born a citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and became a citizen of the new republic of Italy, all without leaving his home city of Trieste. Appiah argues that states exist as a set of shared beliefs rather than membership of some sort of mythical and ancient group. "What binds citizens together is a commitment," he says, "to sharing the life of a modern state, united by its institutions, procedures and precepts."
The lecture is recorded in front of an audience at the University of Glasgow. The series is presented and chaired by Sue Lawley. Future lectures will examine the themes of colour and culture.
The producer is Jim Frank.
SAT 21:00 Incarnations: India in 50 Lives (b082r68f)
Incarnations: India in 50 Lives - Omnibus, The Buddha, Mahavira Jain, Kautilya and Ashoka
An omnibus edition of Professor Sunil Khilnani's audio portraits of figures who have shaped the arc of Indian history over two thousand years. He starts with the Buddha, founder of a way of living with nearly 400 million followers, who turns out to be more interesting than the popular image of a simple figure in the lotus position.
His second subject is Mahavira Jain who was born around the same time and is the inspiration for millions of followers of the Jain religion, which teaches that the way to liberation and bliss is to live a life of harmlessness and renunciation - at its heart is a belief that the entire world, from the ground we tread on to the air we breathe, is filled with life: our duty is to protect this universe of living souls through non-violent action.
People in the West tend to look at India through the prism of religion but that's to ignore contributions made in the field of science, medicine and the world of ideas. Professor Khilnani ends this programme with a portrait of the political strategist known variously as Chanakya or Kautilya and the emperor Ashoka who provided an inspiration for modern day India, set in stone.
Produced by Mark Savage.
SAT 22:00 Fright Night: Rosemary's Baby (b080mhp4)
Kim Cattrall reads the classic best-selling horror about a young, newly married couple who move into a fashionable Manhattan block which harbours a terrifying secret.
A special Halloween one-off abridgement of this darkly brilliant tale of modern devilry by Ira Levin (The Boys From Brazil, The Stepford Wives) which later was faithfully adapted by Roman Polanski into an Academy award-winning film starring Mia Farrow. According to film-making legend, Polanski didn't realise he was allowed to make changes, having never adapted a novel before. Whether or not this was true, the fact remains that nearly every line of dialogue in the film was taken from the novel's text.
Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall, who was directed by Roman Polanski in The Ghost Writer, is making her radio reading debut on Radio 4.
Reader: Kim Cattrall
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
SUNDAY 30 OCTOBER 2016
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b080pxhg)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
SUN 00:30 If I Only Had... (b04dqwyp)
If I Only Had the Nerve
Stories inspired by the iconic MGM film adaptation of L. Frank Baum's classic novel The Wizard of Oz.
Inspired by the Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Cowardly Lion's quest to find Brains, Heart and Courage, Ian Sansom, Morwenna Banks and Colin Carberry bring us a series of three stories about people who find themselves in unexpected situations, which challenge them to display qualities they never realized they had all along, or which find them looking at their lives in a new light in their own personal quests for a brain, a heart, and the nerve.
If I Only Had the Nerve
Read by Ben Peel
Colin Carberry (co-writer of Good Vibrations) introduces us to Brendon, a serial Recruitment Agency temp, who finally discovers the courage to make some important changes in his life.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b080pxhj)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b080pxhl)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
5.20am.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b080pxhn)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b080pxhq)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b080py3n)
St Stephen in Brannel, Cornwall
This week's Bells on Sunday, comes from St Stephen's Church in Brannel, Cornwall. The eight bells were cast and installed in 1909. We hear them ringing Steadman Triples.
SUN 05:45 Profile (b080mhp2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b080pxhs)
The latest national and international news.
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b080pxhv)
Loneliness
Mark Tully asks if we can draw anything positive from that most human problem, loneliness.
In Buddhist thought, the source of loneliness lies in 'dukkha', sometimes defined as 'separation'. Robert Frost called it 'an acquaintance with the night'.
Mark discusses the causes of loneliness and the potential for finding something positive about it with the author and Buddhist writer Sarvananda. In a programme that takes us from remote wilderness to the terraces of Anfield football stadium, he explores both loneliness and solitude through the work of novelist Zoe Heller, psychologist Frieda Fromm-Reichmann and the poet Derek Walcott - and also through music by Pelham Humfrey, David Liebman and Polish composer Wittold Lutoslawski.
The readers are Paapa Essiedu and Emma Pallant.
Presenter: Mark Tully
Producer: Frank Stirling
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (b080py3q)
Squash Harvest
'Get on my land' is one of Luke Hasell's mantras. His unexpectedly early inheritance of the farm in Chew Magna led him to open it up to more people. He converted the beef farm to organic and also hosts The Community Farm, a social enterprise supplying vegetable boxes to the surrounding area and open to those who'd like to be involved. Sybil Ruscoe joins them and the volunteers looking to get more connected to the land as they harvest squash.
SUN 06:57 Weather (b080pxhx)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b080pxhz)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (b080pxj1)
Archbishop Vincent Nichols; Muslim Lifestyle Expo; Church of the Raggamuffins
Religious and ethical news.
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (b080py3s)
The Stroke Association
The award winning actress Miriam Margoyles makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of The Stroke Association.
Registered Charity Number 211015
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal. (That's the whole address. Please do not write anything else on the front of the envelope). Mark the back of the envelope 'The Stroke Association.'
- Cheques should be made payable to 'The Stroke Association.'.
SUN 07:57 Weather (b080pxj3)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b080pxj5)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b080pxj7)
A Declaration of Freedom
Live from The Well, Retford, Notts, marking the work of Thomas Helwys, one of the earliest campaigners for freedom of religious conscience and, on this All Saints Day, exploring the work of those who advocate for freedom of conscience across the world today. Leaders: Baroness Berridge of the Vale of Catmose, the Revd John Brewster. Preacher, The Revd Anthony Peck, General Secretary of the European Baptist Federation. Producer: Andrew Earis.
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (b0801p3y)
In Praise of Prophets of Doom
Howard Jacobson argues that dissatisfaction with life is essential for the health of the human spirit.
"It might come to outweigh other emotions to the point where it is detrimental to the vigour of an individual or a society, but without it there is no vigour at all."
Producer: Sheila Cook.
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b04dvk7n)
Hoatzin
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Sir David Attenborough presents the South American hoatzin. Moving clumsily through riverside trees the funky Mohican head crested hoatzin looks like it has been assembled by a committee. Hoatzin's eat large quantities of leaves and fruit, and to cope with this diet have a highly specialised digestive system more like that of cattle, which gives them an alternative name, 'stink-bird'.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b080pxj9)
Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (b080pxjc)
Shula wants Alistair to reconsider, and Rex delivers a final blow.
SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (b080py3v)
Michael Bublé
Kirsty Young's castaway is the singer, Michael Bublé. Born in Burnaby, British Columbia, as a young boy he spent hours listening to his grandfather's record collection which featured the stars of the Great American songbook - Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Ella Fitzgerald. At sixteen he was singing at venues often in exchange for the free plumbing services his grandad offered to get him on stage. But it took ten years of plugging away at restaurants, clubs, and corporate gigs before he met David Foster, a music producer at Warner Brothers.
His released his first eponymous debut album in 2003. Since then he has won four Grammy Awards and sold 55 million records. He is married to Argentinian actress Luisana Lopilato and they have two young sons.
Producer: Cathy Drysdale.
SUN 12:00 News Summary (b080pxjf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 The Unbelievable Truth (b07zyhq4)
Series 17, Episode 4
David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents.
Tony Hawks, Richard Osman, Clive Anderson and Vicki Pepperdine are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as Australia, leather, oil and crisps.
The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith, the team behind Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.
Produced by Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:32 Food Programme (b080py3x)
Pumpkins and Winter Squash
Sheila Dillon and special guests discover a delicious world of pumpkins and winter squash.
It's Halloween time, and pumpkins are making their annual appearance in windows and on doorsteps. But these winter squash are part of a fascinating family of fruit (yes, fruit - not vegetable) with huge culinary potential that many feel uncomfortable around. This programme aims to change that. Sheila invites chef, restaurateur and squash-lover Romy Gill to her kitchen, where they're joined by Neil Munro - manager of the Heritage Seed Library at Garden Organic (formerly the Henry Doubleday Research Association). To help with the deeper history, they enlist the help of Ken Albala, Professor of Food Studies at the University of the Pacific in California.
Presenter: Sheila Dillon
Producer: Rich Ward.
SUN 12:57 Weather (b080pxjh)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b080pxjk)
Global news and analysis.
SUN 13:30 From Our Home Correspondent (b080py3z)
Faith and politics, Hebridean Brexit, drag kings and gypsies and God feature this month. Mishal Husain introduces dispatches from journalists and writers around the United Kingdom that reflect the range of contemporary life in the country. From politics to pastimes, from hallowed traditions to emerging trends, from the curious to the ridiculous, the programme presents a tableau of Britain today.
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b080py41)
Woburn Abbey
Eric Robson and the panel visit Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire. Answering the horticultural questions this week are James Wong, Pippa Greenwood and Matt Biggs.
Produced by Dan Cocker
Assistant producer: Laurence Bassett
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (b080py66)
Sunday Omnibus - Passion
Fi Glover with conversations that show how common interests fire parent-child relationships, and another that reveals the re-kindling of a romance after 40 years. All in the Omnibus of the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess.
SUN 15:00 Blood, Sex and Money by Emile Zola (b080py68)
Money, Episode 9
The dramatic climax of the Emile Zola: Money season, inspired by literature's greatest ever whistle-blower and his epic saga of the Rougon Macquart families.
Adelaide Fouque (Dide) is 104 years old, trapped in her small room in the local asylum, but omniscient as she broods over her extended family. As a young woman, she gave birth to two dynasties that exemplified French society - one legitimate, rich, powerful, obsessive and corrupt; the other illegitimate, poor, vulnerable, weak and depraved. France is on the brink of a new Empire. Her family is a turbulent mix of the good, the bad and the misguided.
Damaged by a lifetime of seizures and her mind scarred by trauma but Dide cannot forget her family. "What did I bring into this world? Wolves... I have raised a family of Wolves... I have watched their years. I will tell their story. Crime by crime. Blood by blood."
In this final episode, Dide escapes from the asylum and sets about stopping daughter-in-law Félicité Rougon's unscrupulous plans to make the family rule supreme in wealth and politics across France. Her third grandson, Pascal, unites his scientific research with her family memories to publish a book that will blow the whistle on all the appalling misdeeds and weaknesses of Dide's family line. But Félicité will stop at nothing to prevent publication. When Pascal falls in love, to his great surprise, Félicité finds a chink in his armour - with disastrous results.
Dan Rebellato is a Sony nominated writer and Professor of Theatre at Royal Holloway.
Dramatised by Dan Rebellato
Sound Designer: Eloise Whitmore
Series Producer: Susan Roberts
Executive Producer: Melanie Harris
Produced and Directed by Polly Thomas
A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 16:00 Open Book (b080py6b)
Brit Bennett, Emma Chichester Clark, Sir Quentin Blake
Continuing our #lovetoread series about writers across the generations, Sir Quentin Blake and Emma Chichester Clark talk about their new collaboration Three Little Monkeys. Sir Quentin was Emma's tutor at art college, now she has provided the illustrations for his words. So how did it feel to provide the pictures for one of the greatest children's illustrators of our time?
The Mothers is an impressive debut from twenty five year old American writer Brit Bennett. She talks to Mariella about the coming of age story set in an oppressive small town community in California.
Two new books celebrate our love affair with bookshops.
And the collected short stories of Joy Williams is our recommendation for a great November read.
SUN 16:30 Africa's Digital Poets (b080py6d)
Breaking the Window with a Poem
Johannesburg-based performance poet Thabiso Mohare talks to poets in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya who have embraced the digital space to disseminate their work, and looks at how it has served them in continuing a tradition of the poet expressing resistance and representing the conscience of a people.
The role of the court poet or griot was to point out to the powers-that-be that they were messing up. Some of the most vital work being produced and performed now still reflects that role, as poets carve their own path, tackling issues as they see fit, or as part of protest movements such as Fees Must Fall in South Africa.
Thabiso talks to poets who write to agitate, and assesses how much the digital age is influencing the way emerging poets write and perform their work. The phenomenon of certain poems going viral (by Warsan Shire and Suli Breaks for example), and the Def Poetry Jam shows available online, drew several of South Africa's most prominent young performance poets to their chosen craft. But with the development of digital across Africa, their focus is shifting: they're not just looking to the West any more. Although US influence is strong in spoken word poetry, digital is allowing emerging poets to look instead to their home-grown talent for inspiration, and to foster Pan-African approaches. As well as enabling African narratives, some digital platforms are also affording more chances for people to use their mother tongue to speak to their own communities, which mainstream print publishers have rarely been interested in, or able to support.
Thabiso Mohare ('Afurakan'), a spoken word poet based in Johannesburg, is one of the poets and entrepreneurs spearheading developments in spoken word poetry in South Africa, and exploring the possibilities of what the digital space can offer poets in countries where publishers are pulling back from poetry. Thabiso talks to the digital pioneers who, as part of the broader tech revolution in a mobile-first continent, are offering poets across Africa a new outlet for presenting their work in a digital age.
SUN 17:00 File on 4 (b07zzg8m)
Behind Closed Doors
This July, days after walking into the top job at number 10, Theresa May renewed her commitment to crack down on modern day slavery, describing it as "the great human rights issue of our time".
The 2015 Modern Slavery Act gave prosecutors more options to pursue offenders, it handed judges the ability to dole out life sentences and promised more protection for victims. But in the clamour to tackle modern slavery, has the plight of overseas domestic workers, who toil in the homes of wealthy overseas visitors as nannies, cooks and cleaners, been forgotten?
This summer File on 4 followed migrant domestic workers as they escaped abusive employers in the dead of night. Through their stories, the programme questions whether recent measures go far enough to adequately protect an invisible workforce who've been tricked and trapped into a life of exploitation.
Reporter: Phillip Kemp
Producers: Sarah Shebbeare & Ben Robinson.
SUN 17:40 Profile (b080mhp2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b080pxjm)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 17:57 Weather (b080pxjp)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b080pxjr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b080pxjt)
Catherine Bott
You've put the clocks back, now sit back on a flamingo-print cushion and take a look back at the past week in radio:
Catherine Bott will be chewing over the benefits of a vegan diet, going travelling with two very different Alans, contemplating the good life off-grid in Wales and bidding a fond farewell to Desmond Carrington and Astrid the celebrity rhino.
Ugandans Julius and Moses share their good fortune as they begin life together in the safety of the Netherlands, and Al Murray recalls his schooldays.
The Radio iPlayer pick comes from The Food Chain on the World Service and we hear a musical performance from young singer, Florence Cain, Girl Chorister of the Year.
Producer: Stephen Garner
Production Support: Kay Bishton.
SUN 19:00 The Archers (b080py6j)
There is a visitor at the Stables, and Alice is clutching at straws.
SUN 19:15 Book of the Week (b080k4zr)
Keeping On Keeping On, 2006
Alan Bennett reads extracts from his recently published diaries.
Following on from Alan Bennett's bestselling, award-winning prose collections Writing Home and Untold Stories, Keeping On Keeping On is a newly-published third anthology featuring his unique observations, recollections and reminiscences.
In these entries, covering the years 2005 to 2014, Bennett looks back on a packed decade that included writing four highly-acclaimed plays - The Habit of Art, People, Hymn and Cocktail Sticks, all of which premiered at the National Theatre - as well as the screenplays for the hit films of The History Boys and The Lady in the Van.
In addition, he reflects on his 25 years of friendship and collaboration with director Nicholas Hytner, life with his partner Rupert Thomas and, radical views notwithstanding, his status as 'kindly, cosy and essentially harmless' - a view which these diaries do their best to disprove.
Today, Alan reflects on how much easier it is to get married than to get a Camden parking permit.
Abridged and produced by Gordon House.
SUN 19:30 Book of the Week (b080vyv8)
Keeping On Keeping On, 2011
Alan Bennett reads extracts from his recently published diaries.
Following on from Alan Bennett's bestselling, award-winning prose collections Writing Home and Untold Stories, Keeping On Keeping On is a newly-published third anthology featuring his unique observations, recollections and reminiscences.
In these entries, covering the years 2005 to 2014, Bennett looks back on a packed decade that included writing four highly-acclaimed plays - The Habit of Art, People, Hymn and Cocktail Sticks, all of which premiered at the National Theatre - as well as the screenplays for the hit films of The History Boys and The Lady in the Van.
In addition, he reflects on his 25 years of friendship and collaboration with director Nicholas Hytner, life with his partner Rupert Thomas and, radical views notwithstanding, his status as 'kindly, cosy and essentially harmless' - a view which these diaries do their best to disprove.
Today, Alan is mistaken for Alan Ayckbourn and looks a gift (War) Horse in the mouth.
Abridged and produced by Gordon House.
SUN 19:45 Natural Histories: Short Stories (b080qv21)
Natural Histories: Short Stories, Something That Seems Simple but Has a Million Eyes by Evie Wyld
Evie Wyld's original story is about two sisters trying to talk to each other. And clams. It's read by Hermione Norris. The story was inspired by a behind-the-scenes tour of the Natural History Museum, as part of the collaboration between Radio 4 and the Natural History Museum.
Producer Beth O'Dea.
SUN 20:00 Feedback (b0801l0v)
Roger Bolton investigates the demise of Detective James McLevy, protagonist of the much-loved and long-running Radio 4 drama.
Also, many listeners want to know why the former Cabinet minister Michael Gove got so much airtime this week, with lengthy interviews on the World at One and a 15 minute special on The Pursuit of Power.
The programme goes behind the scenes at a recording of The Kitchen Cabinet, talking to panellists, audience members and the programme's presenter Jay Rayner.
Everything We've Ever Known is a series of short comic histories of science presented by Jake Yapp. They are currently on the Radio 4 website but, for the first time, have no connection with any Radio 4 programme. Roger Bolton discusses this development with the creators.
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 20:30 Last Word (b0801l0s)
Raine, Countess Spencer, James "Jimmy" Perry, Stylianos Pattakos, Howard Davies, Bobby Vee
Obituary series, analysing and celebrating the life stories of people who have recently died.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (b080mhd6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b080py3s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 Analysis (b07zyl4d)
The Myth of Mobs
In popular imagination, being in a crowd makes people scary and irrational. But is this true? In this edition of Analysis, David Edmonds asks social psychologists - including a leading expert on groups, Steve Reicher - about the psychology of crowds. This is far more than merely a theoretical matter. It has profound implications for how we police crowds.
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b080pxjw)
Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (b08015rw)
Jacqueline Bisset
With Francine Stock.
Jacqueline Bisset looks back at Day For Night, Francois Truffaut's Oscar-winning movie about movie-making. She reveals why she refuses "to whinge" about the roles offered to older women.
Critics Tim Robey and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh enter the strange world of the film within a film, from Singin' In The Rain to Hail Caesar.
FanGirl Quest, aka Tiia Ohman and Satu Walden, explain why they have travelled the globe from their native Finland to seek out famous locations and practice something they call "scene framing".
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b080pxhv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 31 OCTOBER 2016
MON 00:00 Midnight News (b080pxlp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (b07zzrkw)
Hoods - Construction Blacklist
Hood: a cultural history of a seemingly neutral garment which has long been associated with violence, from the Executioner to the KKK and inner city gangs. Laurie Taylor talks to the America writer, Alison Kinney, about the material and symbolic meaning of hoods.
Also, the blacklisting of employees. Dr Paul Lashmar, Senior Lecturer in Journalism at the University of Sussex, examines a hidden history of discrimination. He's joined by Jack Fawbert, Associate Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University, who provides the most contemporary and widespread instance of blacklisting in the UK - an extraordinary corporate crime which led to over 150 current or retired building workers reaching a substantial out of court settlement with the country's eight largest building employers earlier this year. All had been blacklisted for their trade union activities and alleged political views. How did this happen?
Producer: Jayne Egerton.
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b080py3n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b080pxlr)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b080pxlt)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b080pxlw)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (b080pxly)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b081zfqg)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Gopinder Kaur Sagoo.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (b080pxm0)
Pumpkin farming, Food marketing
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. Presented by Sybil Ruscoe and produced by Sally Challoner.
MON 05:56 Weather (b080pxm2)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dwy1y)
Golden Plover
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 Golden Plover. If, among a flock of lapwings circling over a ploughed field, you see smaller birds with wings like knife-blades and bell-like calls ... these are golden plovers.
MON 06:00 Today (b080pxm4)
News and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (b080r35r)
Alan Bennett
On Start the Week Andrew Marr talks to the writer Alan Bennett about his life and work. As he publishes his third and, he says, final selection of his diaries, Keeping On Keeping On, Bennett reflects on his reputation for tweeness, his radical politics and sexuality. He writes, "Nothing is ever quite so bad that one can't write it down or so shameful either, though this took me a long time to learn with my earliest diaries reticent and even prudish."
Producer: Katy Hickman.
MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b080r35t)
Keeping On Keeping On, 2010
Alan Bennett reads extracts from his recently published diaries.
Following on from Alan Bennett's bestselling, award-winning prose collections Writing Home and Untold Stories, Keeping On Keeping On is a newly-published third anthology featuring his unique observations, recollections and reminiscences.
In these entries, covering the years 2005 to 2014, Bennett looks back on a packed decade that included writing four highly-acclaimed plays - The Habit of Art, People, Hymn and Cocktail Sticks, all of which premiered at the National Theatre - as well as the screenplays for the hit films of The History Boys and The Lady in the Van.
In addition, he reflects on his 25 years of friendship and collaboration with director Nicholas Hytner, life with his partner Rupert Thomas and, radical views notwithstanding, his status as 'kindly, cosy and essentially harmless' - a view which these diaries do their best to disprove.
Today, Alan has ice cream poured down the back of his raincoat - and is robbed of £1500.
Abridged and produced by Gordon House.
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b080pxm6)
American Folk and Indie Rock Singer, Angel Olsen
Half of all women will experience a urinary tract infection with many having repeated bouts. Half of women over 55 and a third of younger women report a recurrence within one year. Jane talks to Professor James Malone-Lee about why he thinks a much more radical approach is needed to treat the condition and to Kate Middleton who suffered with a chronic condition and is now part of a campaign group to try and change the way GPs diagnose it.
Acclaimed US folk and indie rock singer and guitarist Angel Olsen talks about her music and her new album, My Woman, and performs a unique solo performance, live in the Woman's Hour studio.
Tonight BBC Four will broadcast an hour-long documentary about the founding of Virago, the women-only publisher. We'll hear from Harriet Spicer, one of the founders in 1973, and later it's managing director. And also from Lennie Goodings, currently at the helm, who joined in the late 70s. They'll discuss Virago's place in the Women's Liberation Movement of the 70s - and how it's kept its identity in a publishing industry dominated by big business.
In our new series we are looking at five beauty staples...foundation, lipstick, eyeliner, nail varnish, and mascara. We kick off the series with lipstick; originally we used berries to stain our lips but now we have numerous colours and styles to choose from. Beauty journalist, Sali Hughes and MDM Flow Founder, Florence Adepoju explain why lipstick is a beauty must have.
Presenter: Jane Garvey
Producer: Kirsty Starkey.
MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b080r35w)
The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles, Episode 1
The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles (Series 8)
by Esther Wilson
Return of award winning drama series, both funny and moving exploration of the challenges and aspirations of a young couple with learning disabilities. Darleen discovers she's pregnant. Life will never be the same again for the couple. Created in part through improvisation and inspired by true stories.
Produced and directed by Pauline Harris
Further info:- The leading actors Donna Lavin and Edmund Davies both have learning disabilities. A one off version was created for television, starring Donna and Ed, and also Anne Reid, in an episode of BBC One's Moving On, exec produced by Jimmy McGovern. Both actors have also starred together as a couple in Casualty, and Donna has starred in episodes of Doctors and Holby City, and appeared in The Dumping Ground for BBC One.
MON 11:00 The Untold (b080r35y)
Some Mother's Son
Grace Dent follows Untold listener Shirley as she tries to find out the exact circumstances of her estranged son's death from drinks and drugs.
Shirley had just arrived at work when she got a phone call which changed her life - the student finance company wanted her son's death certificate for their records. Six months previously Ben, who was sleeping rough, had disappeared - but Shirley had no idea he'd died.
Shirley needs to know more about her son's death. Three years on, she hopes to meet the rough sleeper who was with him when he died - and visit the drop-in centre which tried to help him.
Producer: Sara Parker.
MON 11:30 The Rivals (b080r360)
Series 4, The Clairvoyants
By Arthur B Reeve.
Dramatised By Chris Harrald.
Inspector Lestrade was made to look a fool in the Sherlock Holmes stories. Now he gets his own back, with tales of Holmes' rivals. After his protégé Constance Dunlap saves a woman from drowning, the woman mumbles "this was meant to happen". Lestrade helps Constance investigate her suspicions that this was no accident and that the woman is in mortal danger.
Producer: Liz Webb.
MON 12:00 News Summary (b080pxm8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 The Escaped Lyric (b080r362)
Solitude
From teenage alienation to middle-aged loss and regret, lyrics from popular music can escape their song to become an anthem of our youth or a lifeline through loss and solitude. Nick Berkeley speaks to song writers and musicians about how the words of a three minute pop song can come to have such impact on us all.
He dissects the craft of the song in a quest to understand the alchemy that converts seemingly simple words into thoughts of great impact and meaning. From Noel Coward to Kylie Minogue, seminal folk songs to outsider hip hop, there are words and phrases that the music fan can cling to, and remember, forever.
Contributors include: Hanif Kureishi, Brett Anderson, Cathy Dennis, Green Gartside, Benjamin Clementine, Christopher Ricks and Sid Griffin.
Programme One: Solitude
Producer: Emma Jarvis
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:15 You and Yours (b080pxmb)
Consumer affairs programme.
MON 12:57 Weather (b080pxmd)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 13:00 World at One (b080pxmg)
Analysis of news and current affairs.
MON 13:45 One to One (b060zq8p)
Selina Scott speaks to Canon Paul Greenwell
Selina Scott was recently involved in buying, at an auction in America, a rare edition of one of the most famous ghost stories in the world, Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol'. The book was subsequently returned to its home town of Malton in North Yorkshire which was the inspiration for the novel.
Thus, with ghosts very much on Selina's mind and a suspicion that there is a ghost in her own home, Selina finds out more about the paranormal in this series of One to One.
In the first of her three programmes Selina talks to Canon Paul Greenwell from Ripon Cathedral who carries out 'home blessings' for people who think they have encountered a ghost or spirit.
He joins Selina in her home, a 15th century farm house in North Yorkshire, to try and get to the bottom of the presence in her kitchen.
Producer: Perminder Khatkar.
MON 14:00 The Archers (b080py6j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Drama (b080r364)
The Good Listener, Carte Blanche
Inside spy agency GCHQ, agents are monitoring delegates of the G20 summit when they discover a sophisticated cyber-attack targeting the UK National Grid. Senior analyst Henry Morcombe, already unconvinced about the need to monitor allies, leads the team tasked with investigating the threat.
The attack is highly sophisticated and comes from an unknown source. Could it be connected to the G20? It could be criminals, terrorists or even other nation states. Henry and his team attempt to find out, needing to deploy ever more creative ways of monitoring their targets.
The Good Listener created by Fin Kennedy and Boz Temple-Morris
Written by Fin Kennedy
Sound design by Alisdair McGregor
Assistant Producer: Robbie MacInnes
Produced and directed by Boz Temple-Morris
A Holy Mountain production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 15:00 Round Britain Quiz (b080r366)
Programme 1, 2016
(1/12)
Tom Sutcliffe is in the chair for a new series of the longest-established panel quiz game on British radio. Teams from around the UK compete to unpick the programme's notoriously cryptic and multi-layered questions which rely on a wide knowledge of culture, history and science.
The first programme pits the crime writer Val McDermid and photographer Alan McCredie, playing for Scotland, against writer and broadcaster Myfanwy Alexander and quiz guru David Edwards, appearing for Wales. Both pairs will be hoping they can wrest the series title back from the South of England team who pipped them to the greatest number of victories last season.
As always, Tom is on hand to give gentle clues and steer them out of blind alleys whenever necessary, but will be deducting points depending on how much help he has to provide before the penny drops. Listeners' question ideas always form an important ingredient in the quiz, and the questions are available to see on the webpage before each edition. Tom will also be setting plenty of teasers for listeners to try out between programmes.
Later in the series the teams from the North of England, the South of England, Northern Ireland and the Midlands join the fray. They include some more new participants taking part in Round Britain Quiz for the first time this year, including names already well loved by Radio 4 audiences.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
MON 15:30 Food Programme (b080py3x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Short Cuts (b080t0p7)
Series 10, The Witching Hour
An invitation to wander out into the darkness, an actor who discovers she's been killed off in real life and a late night wander into the Icelandic night. Josie Long hears tales of the witching hour as she ventures out for a midnight walk in the woods.
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 16:30 Digital Human (b080t0p9)
Series 10, Haunted
So much of our experience of technology can feel a bit like being haunted. It starts like any good ghost story with the just mildly unsettling; things aren't were you left them or seem to have moved on their own within our devices. Its a creepy feeling that leaves you unsure about what to believe. Our understanding of how much of technology works is so limited that when it starts to behave out of the ordinary we have no explanation. This is when we start to make very peculiar judgement's; "why did you do that" we plead, as if some hidden force was at work.
For some these feelings of being haunted by our technology can develop into full blown apparitions; keen gamers frequently experience Game transfer Phenomena where they literally see images of their game play in the real world, an involuntary augmented reality. While the hallucinations aren't necessarily distressing in themselves the experiences can leave individuals questioning their sanity.
The coming internet of things will bring problems of its own; smart locks that mysteriously open by themselves for example as if under the influence of some poltergeist. Aleks herself has had the experience of digital 'gas lighting' (a term drawn from an Ingrid Bergman movie of a woman being driven mad by husband) when her partner logged on to their home automation system remotely and started to mess with the lights while Aleks was home alone. As one commentator puts it in a reworking of the old Arthur C. Clarke quote "any sufficiently advanced hacking is indistinguishable from haunting."
And as our devices and appliances increasingly start talking to each other bypassing us altogether who's to say we, like Nicole Kidman's character in The Others, haven't become the ghost in the machine.
Producer: Peter McManus.
MON 17:00 PM (b080pxmj)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b080pxml)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 The Unbelievable Truth (b080t0pc)
Series 17, Episode 5
David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents.
John Finnemore, Frankie Boyle, Jeremy Hardy and Lucy Porter are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as Donald Trump, musicals, weddings and Oxbridge.
The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith, the team behind Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.
Produced by Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 19:00 The Archers (b080t0pf)
Adam struggles to be heard, and Pip pleads with Rex.
MON 19:15 Front Row (b080pxmn)
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b080r35w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
MON 20:00 The Unswayables: Trump's Loyal Army (b080xz1w)
As election day draws near in the United States one thing is clear: no revelation about Donald Trump will dissuade his loyalists from voting for him. During the course of the campaign his overwhelmingly white supporters have been dismissed as racist and poorly educated but is that an accurate assessment?
It is very likely Trump will receive the votes of more than 40% of the American electorate. That is a lot of voters, more than just the stereotype of embittered, left behind by globalisation workers that has become a cliche of campaign coverage.
In this documentary Michael Goldfarb travels to western Pennsylvania, once a Democratic stronghold now tilting heavily Republican. He spends more than a few minutes with Trump supporters listening to them and their reasons for supporting the candidate. How do they see the world? How do they learn about the world? What media do they use? He also explores what happens should their man lose.
More than any election of recent decades this campaign has revealed an America divided. How, after a campaign such a Trump's, can it be brought back together?
MON 20:30 Analysis (b080t0ph)
Trusting Inmates
"Trust is the only thing that changes people," says Professor Alison Liebling, the director of the Prisons Research Centre at the University of Cambridge. Lucy Ash examines this claim and asks whether putting more trust in offenders would improve outcomes in British prisons, with their violence, drugs, overcrowding and under-staffing.
Producer: Arlene Gregorius.
MON 21:00 Natural Histories (b07zz5y6)
Toad
Unlike frogs, toads have long suffered from a bad press. Thomas Pennant, a Welsh naturalist described them as "The most deformed and hideous of all animals .... its general appearance is such as to strike one with disgust and horror" in 1776, and Shakespeare didn't do much for their PR when he had the three witches toss the toads into the charmed pot in Macbeth. And whilst its true that Toads have glands which contain toxic substances which deter predators, they have also been viewed as evil spirits and a widely held belief concerned the toadstone - a jewel that was supposed to be found inside the toad's head, which could protect the wearer from foul play. Kenneth Grahame did his best to dispel many of these myths when he introduced his readers to the loveable rascal Mr Toad in Wind in the Willows, although this toad terrorised everyone with his wreckless driving! This is somewhat ironic given that thousands of toads are killed every year on our roads by cars as they return to their breeding ponds. But as Brett Westwood discovers, help is at hand - as huge number of volunteers venture out every year to gather up toads from the roads and release them in nearby pools and lakes, to breed once again. All this and an encounter with the bootle organ as Brett explore our relationship with the Toad. Producer Sarah Blunt.
MON 21:30 Start the Week (b080r35r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 21:58 Weather (b080pxmq)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b080pxms)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b080t452)
Days Without End, Episode 1
A new novel by the Irish author and twice Man Booker Prize finalist Sebastian Barry.
Thomas McNulty recounts how he, having fled Ireland when orphaned during the Great Famine, made his way across America as part of the U.S. Cavalry. With his long-time friend and companion John Cole, Thomas witnesses the birth of America - from the atrocities committed against the Native Americans to the horrors of the Civil War - and, ultimately, finds his own family and identity.
MON 23:00 The Casebook of Max and Ivan (b08015ry)
Case #124 - Against The Grain
Acclaimed double-act Max and Ivan return as incompetent private detectives for hire.
Thrown out of their office by unhinged landlord Malcolm McMichaelmas, a holiday with Ivan's anthropologist Uncle Cornelius (Mark Heap) on the remote Isle of Sudley seems to be the perfect solution. However, things quickly go awry as the boys get mixed up in a sinister underworld of murder, human sacrifice and sand.
Cast:
Max......................................Max Olesker
Ivan......................................Ivan Gonzalez
Dr Cornelius Cornelius............Mark Heap
Narrator /
Malcolm McMichaelmas..........Lewis MacLeod
Griselda /
Sharon the Tourism Lady /
Creepy Twin.........................Jessica Ransom
Keane / Scared Man /
Coffin Maker / Susan /
Other Creepy Twin................David Reed
Written by and Max Olesker and Ivan Gonzalez
Developed by John Stanley Productions
Produced by Ben Walker
A Retort production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (b080t454)
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.
TUESDAY 01 NOVEMBER 2016
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b080pxph)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b080r35t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b080pxpk)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b080pxpm)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b080pxpp)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b080pxpr)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b081zfsj)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Gopinder Kaur Sagoo.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b080pxpt)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Sally Challoner.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03zr0qn)
Great Grey Shrike
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Kate Humble presents the great grey shrike. Great grey shrikes feed on small birds, which they can catch in flight. They also eat mice, voles and shrews and, as spring approaches, they'll include bees and larger beetles in their diet. Shrikes are also known as "butcher birds" because of their habit of impaling their prey on thorns, just as a butcher hangs his meat on hooks.
TUE 06:00 Today (b080t63t)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Reith Lectures (b080t63w)
Kwame Anthony Appiah: Mistaken Identities, Colour
The philosopher and cultural theorist Kwame Anthony Appiah argues for a world free of racial fixations.
He tells the story of Anton Wilhelm Amo Afer. He was five years old when he was brought from the Gold Coast to Germany in 1707, educated at a royal court and became an eminent philosopher. He argues that this elaborate Enlightenment experiment illuminates a series of mistaken ideas , including that there is a "racial essence" which all members of that race carry. Modern science long ago disproved this, as almost all of the world's genetic variation is found within every so-called racial group. Instead, "race is something we make; not something that makes us."
The lecture is recorded in front of an audience at the British Council in Accra, Ghana. The series is presented and chaired by Sue Lawley
The producer is Jim Frank.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b080pxpw)
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b080t7dc)
The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles, Episode 2
The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles (Series 8) ep2/5
by Esther Wilson
Return of award winning drama series, both funny and moving exploration of the challenges and aspirations of a young couple with learning disabilities. Sparks fly when Treena finds out inadvertently that daughter Darleen is pregnant. Created in part through improvisation and inspired by true stories.
Produced and directed by Pauline Harris
Further info:- The leading actors Donna Lavin and Edmund Davies both have learning disabilities. A one off version was created for television, starring Donna and Ed, and also Anne Reid, in an episode of BBC One's Moving On, exec produced by Jimmy McGovern. Both actors have also starred together as a couple in Casualty, and Donna has starred in episodes of Doctors and Holby City, and appeared in The Dumping Ground for BBC One.
TUE 11:00 Natural Histories (b080t7df)
Cricket
When Brett Westwood is invited to stroll around the streets of London with a 'singing cricket' as a companion he is following a tradition which can be traced back over a thousand years ago to before the Tang Dynasty in China when people kept crickets in cages and enjoyed their songs. This custom began in the Royal Courts when the Emperor's concubines placed caged crickets near their pillows so they could enjoy the songs during the night. The practise was soon taken up by local people who carried crickets around in tiny cages and in London, Brett meets Lisa Hall, a sound artist who has brought the tradition right up to date with a tiny audio player fitted with a set of speakers that are small enough to be concealed in a pocket. As Lisa explains the effect is like wearing 'a perfume' of song which masks the ugly urban sounds. Could this audio trend catch on? Producer Sarah Blunt.
TUE 11:30 Soul Music (b080t7dh)
Series 23, The Star-Spangled Banner
America's national anthem was written by a lawyer, Francis Scott Key, after watching the British navy bombing Fort McHenry in 1814. It was set to an English social men's club song and recognized as the national anthem in 1889. Notoriously difficult to sing, and traditionally played at public sports events and orchestral concerts, the anthem has inspired emotion and attracted controversy. We hear from Dr John Carlos who along with Dr Tommie Smith, raised their fists on the Olympic podium in the Mexico City Olympics in 1968 as the anthem was played; Jose Feliciano who sang the anthem at the 1968 World series and provoked criticism; Conrad Netting IV who discovered the truth about his fighter pilot father's history which led him to a cemetery in Normandy; members of the Coldstream Guards band who played the anthem at the changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace the day after 9/11 and Leon Hendrix, Jimi's brother, who was in the army at the time of Woodstock, and was put on 'potato peeling duty' because of the 'dishonourable' version his brother had played.
TUE 12:00 News Summary (b080pxpy)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 The Escaped Lyric (b081b2w3)
Family
From teenage alienation to middle-aged loss and regret, lyrics from popular music can escape their song to become an anthem of our youth or a lifeline through loss and solitude. Nick Berkeley speaks to songwriters and musicians about how the words of a three minute pop song can come to have such impact on us all.
He dissects the craft of the song in a quest to understand the alchemy that converts seemingly simple words into thoughts of great impact and meaning. From Noel Coward to Kylie Minogue, seminal folk songs to outsider hip hop, there are words and phrases that the music fan can cling to, and remember, forever.
Contributors include: Hanif Kureishi, Brett Anderson, Cathy Dennis, Green Gartside, Benjamin Clementine, Christopher Ricks and Sid Griffin.
Programme Two: Family
Producer: Emma Jarvis
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:15 You and Yours (b080pxq0)
Call You and Yours
Consumer phone-in.
TUE 12:57 Weather (b080pxq2)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 13:00 World at One (b080pxq4)
Analysis of news and current affairs.
TUE 13:45 One to One (b061qsdf)
Selina Scott talks to Yasmin Ishaq
Selina Scott is intrigued and fascinated by the ghost stories she hears living in a rural community. She thinks she has her own ghost in her kitchen,an old 15th century farmhouse in North Yorkshire.
In the second of her three programmes for One to One, Selina talks to spiritual healer, Yasmin Ishaq who doesn't believe in ghosts but in Jinn, supernatural creatures in Islamic tradition. She explains this phenomena to Selina and the devastating impact it can have on Muslim communities.
Producer: Perminder Khatkar.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (b080t0pf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (b080t87y)
The Good Listener, Private Lives
Following a cyber-attack on the UK National Grid, electricity substations have been infected by a computer virus that can shut them down at a moment's notice. Once blackouts commence, it would be a matter of hours before country is thrown into utter chaos.
Pressure is mounting on agents at GCHQ to neutralise the threat and find the source of the attack.
Critical infrastructure is the new front line of a war that is being fought through keyboards and computer networks.
The Good Listener created by Fin Kennedy and Boz Temple-Morris
Written by Hassan Abdulrazzak
Sound design by Alisdair McGregor
Assistant Producer: Robbie MacInnes
Produced and directed by Boz Temple-Morris
A Holy Mountain production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (b080mhd4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (b080t880)
Nuclear Futures
Our nuclear power stations are being pushed to run well past their planned life-span. Matthew Hill asks if this is putting us all in danger.
Producer: Alasdair Cross.
TUE 16:00 Law in Action (b080t882)
Counter-terrorism and Counter-extremism Law
Does the law strike the right balance when it comes to combating terrorism and extremism?
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (b080t884)
Terry Christian and Dr Kevin Fong
Terry Christian was the infamous presenter of C4's The Word, and he's a voracious reader - a book a week. He chooses Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury, his partly autobiographical novel of a Midwestern childhood which brings back memories of the sheer happiness of the summer holidays.
Dr Kevin Fong is a consultant anaesthetist who's an expert in space medicine, and also a TV presenter. His choice is The Humans, an extraordinary book by Matt Haig, which raises questions about alien life, and our life.
Presenter Harriett Gilbert chooses Howards End is On The Landing by Susan Hill, about reading the books you already have in the house but have never opened. It inspires true confessions of classic authors never read..
Producer Beth O'Dea.
TUE 17:00 PM (b080pxq6)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b080pxq8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Ed Reardon's Week (b080t886)
Series 11, Episode 5
Comedy. The curmudgeonly author takes listeners through his week.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (b080t88b)
Toby searches high and low, and Kenton plans a surprise.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (b080pxqb)
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b080t7dc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (b080t8nn)
The Hidden Homeless
The number of people who are homeless is on the rise. In London it shot up almost 80 per cent in 4 years. Latest government figures show councils in England took on 15,000 new homeless households between April and June this year - a 10 per cent increase on the previous year.
Increasingly councils are having to use temporary accommodation and even bed and breakfasts to cope with a shortage of affordable accommodation. It has become an increasingly profitable business for landlords. Research this year for London councils found that they had spent over £650 million in the capital on temporary accommodation in just one year. Charities say changes to the benefit cap which comes into effect next week will make the situation for families looking for a home, even worse.
File on 4 reports from the front line of the homelessness crisis. The programme meets the families sent by councils to live in cramped, filthy conditions.
We hear from the doctors who claim emergency accommodation in one city is affecting people's mental health and contributing to an increase in deaths and the local authority keeping families in B&B accommodation longer than they are legally allowed to.
Reporter: Simon Cox
Producer: Nicola Dowling.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (b080pxqd)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.
TUE 21:00 All in the Mind (b080t8nq)
Taking pride, Correct vocabulary in describing mental health, Green exercise
Claudia Hammond presents a series that explores the limits and potential of the human mind.
TUE 21:30 The Anglo-Irish Century (b0790867)
The Irish Exodus
Although the ambitions and progress of politicians and diplomats has been vital to the developing story of Anglo-Irish relations over the last century, in his third programme in the series covering the last hundred years, Diarmaid Ferriter turns his focus to the ordinary Irishmen and women who forged often unbreakable links with Britain by the simple expedient of moving there. The scale of Irish immigration, the lives those immigrants lead and the wealth they sent back to the now independent Republic are central to the post war period.
It was also an era that saw a changing of the guard in Ireland as de Valera gave way to the very different leadership of the Taoiseach Sean Lemass. Lemass also changed the language of his Republican colleagues, referring to Northern Ireland for the first time and, in the 1960s forging links with the Northern Ireland Prime Minister Terence O'Neill.
The impact of that shift, the restlessness of the Catholic population in the north over civil rights and of the Loyalists over what they perceived as a threat to the status quo saw the situation deteriorate rapidly.
Diarmaid debates the impact of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Easter Rising on all sides in what was to become a violent sectarian conflict.
Roy Hattersley, the man who called the troops in to keep the peace in 1969, Martin McGuinness and Lord Trimble describe the inexorable slide into conflict and the breakdown of trust between Dublin and Westminster which reached a peak with the events of Bloody Sunday and the fallout thereafter as the then Taoiseach Jack Lynch and Prime Minister Edward Heath argued on the phone and the British Embassy in Dublin was set aflame.
Producer: Tom Alban.
TUE 21:58 Weather (b080pxqg)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b080pxqj)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b080t8ns)
Days Without End, Episode 2
A new novel by the Irish author and twice Man Booker Prize finalist Sebastian Barry.
Thomas McNulty recounts how he, having fled Ireland when orphaned during the Great Famine, made his way across America as part of the U.S. Cavalry. With his long-time friend and companion John Cole, Thomas witnesses the birth of America - from the atrocities committed against the Native Americans to the horrors of the Civil War - and, ultimately, finds his own family and identity.
TUE 23:00 Julia Sutherland: Fat Chance (b05nvg7r)
Comedian Julia Sutherland spent over a decade battling with eating disorders and obesity. When she finally lost six-and-a-half stone, it felt like she had another shot at life.
A new body, a new perspective on the world - but was it really a new Julia? She attempts to find out through stand up, sketches and stories.
Producer: Sean Kerwin
A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (b080tynd)
Sean Curran reports from Westminster.
WEDNESDAY 02 NOVEMBER 2016
WED 00:00 Midnight News (b080pxs7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b080vyv8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 on Sunday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b080pxs9)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b080pxsc)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b080pxsf)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (b080pxsh)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b081zg59)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Gopinder Kaur Sagoo.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (b080pxsk)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378xsn)
Common Gull
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Michaela Strachan presents the common gull. In spite of their name Common Gulls aren't as common or widespread as some of our other gulls. Most of the breeding colonies in the UK are in Scotland. In North America their alternative name is Mew gull because of their mewing cat-like cries.
WED 06:00 Today (b081zdy2)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Midweek (b080vyvb)
Lively and diverse conversation with Libby Purves and guests.
WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b080vyvd)
Keeping On Keeping On, 2012
Alan Bennett reads extracts from his recently published diaries.
Following on from Alan Bennett's bestselling, award-winning prose collections Writing Home and Untold Stories, Keeping On Keeping On is a newly-published third anthology featuring his unique observations, recollections and reminiscences.
In these entries, covering the years 2005 to 2014, Bennett looks back on a packed decade that included writing four highly-acclaimed plays - The Habit of Art, People, Hymn and Cocktail Sticks, all of which premiered at the National Theatre - as well as the screenplays for the hit films of The History Boys and The Lady in the Van.
In addition, he reflects on his 25 years of friendship and collaboration with director Nicholas Hytner, life with his partner Rupert Thomas and, radical views notwithstanding, his status as 'kindly, cosy and essentially harmless' - a view which these diaries do their best to disprove.
Today, Alan reflects on the "back place" in writers' lives, and talks about hiding - or not hiding - under Dudley Moore's bed.
Abridged and produced by Gordon House.
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b080pxsm)
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
WED 10:41 15 Minute Drama (b080vyvg)
The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles, Episode 3
The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles (Series 8) ep3/5
Return of award winning drama series. Delightfully irreverent drama about a young couple with learning disabilities. Darleen has run away because it seems everyone is opposed to her having a baby. Then she meets her very own 'guardian angel' and finds a way forward.
Produced and Directed by Pauline Harris.
WED 10:55 The Listening Project (b080vz75)
Claire and Richard - Our Secret Place at Low Tide
Fi Glover with a conversation between a couple who find peace on the Sussex seashore. 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 The Unswayables: Trump's Loyal Army (b080xz1w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
WED 11:30 Gloomsbury (b05w8dmy)
Series 3, All Very Hush Hush
When Henry decides to work from home, his wife - the novelist and gardener Vera Sackcloth-Vest - is forced to rearrange her secret liaison with Venus Traduces lest Henry should discover her betrayal.
But Henry has more pressing matters to attend to. His boss from the foreign office is coming down for a secret meeting to discuss a breach of security at Sizzlinghurst and, as a result, Henry can't stop seeing spies round every corner. His paranoia is fuelled by the arrival of a journalist and a photographer from that hotbed of Bolshevism, the Observer newspaper, who have come to interview Vera, and by the unexpected visit of Ginny Fox and her Socialist husband, Lionel, who have come to do research for Ginny's new novel on the Foreign Office.
Everyone appears to be asking intrusive questions and Henry becomes very, very twitchy - especially when he discovers that the interviewer is the working class genius DH Lollipop and the photographer his occasional squeeze, Venus Traduces.
Now Henry feels properly betrayed and only Vera denouncing Venus in public can assuage his jealous rage.
Produced by Jamie Rix
A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:00 News Summary (b080pxsp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 The Escaped Lyric (b081b2y1)
Vulnerability
From teenage alienation to middle-aged loss and regret, lyrics from popular music can escape their song to become an anthem of our youth or a lifeline through loss and solitude. Nick Berkeley speaks to songwriters and musicians about how the words of a three minute pop song can come to have such impact on us all.
He dissects the craft of the song in a quest to understand the alchemy that converts seemingly simple words into thoughts of great impact and meaning. From Noel Coward to Kylie Minogue, seminal folk songs to outsider hip hop, there are words and phrases that the music fan can cling to, and remember, forever.
Contributors include: Hanif Kureishi, Brett Anderson, Cathy Dennis, Green Gartside, Benjamin Clementine, Christopher Ricks and Sid Griffin.
Programme Three: Vulnerability
Producer: Emma Jarvis
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:15 You and Yours (b080pxsr)
Consumer affairs programme.
WED 12:57 Weather (b080pxst)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 13:00 World at One (b080pxsw)
Analysis of news and current affairs.
WED 13:45 One to One (b062kb01)
Selina Scott talks to ghostbuster Hayley Stevens
Selina Scott is intrigued and fascinated by ghosts and believes she has one of her own, which resides in the kitchen of her home, an 15th century farmhouse in rural North Yorkshire.
In the final of her three programmes for One to One, Selina talks to ghostbuster Hayley Stevens who doesn't believe in ghosts.
She offers Selina a rational explanation for the ghostly presence in her house.
Producer: Perminder Khatkar.
WED 14:00 The Archers (b080t88b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (b080w5pk)
The Good Listener, Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes
Following a fiendishly complex cyber-attack on the UK electricity system, hospitals, food distribution, communications systems and transport networks are thrown into disarray. Lives are at risk while GCHQ agents attempt to contain the virus.
As Henry Morcombe and his team get close to the source of the attack, their suspicions fall on a most unlikely source and they now have to deal with a very inconvenient truth.
The Good Listener created by Fin Kennedy and Boz Temple-Morris
Written by Anders Lustgarten
Sound design by Alisdair McGregor
Assistant Producer: Robbie MacInnes
Produced and directed by Boz Temple-Morris
A Holy Mountain production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 15:00 Money Box (b080w5pm)
Money Box Live
Financial phone-in.
WED 15:30 All in the Mind (b080t8nq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b080w5pr)
Sociological discussion programme, presented by Laurie Taylor.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (b080pxsy)
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world.
WED 17:00 PM (b080pxt0)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b080pxt2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Rich Hall's (US Election) Breakdown (b080w5pw)
Multi award-winning comedian and US Citizen Rich Hall follows the closing stages of the US Presidential race, offering an acerbic look at the electoral system and the two candidates vying for the most important job in the world.
A combination of stand-up, sketch and interview, Rich Hall's (US Election) Breakdown broadcasts live from the fictional IBBC network in Washington to the whole of the United States.
Rich and his producer Nick Doody take calls from every corner of the United States to hear the concerns of voters, offering their take on the issues troubling the American electorate.
WED 19:00 The Archers (b080w5py)
Brian offloads his concerns, and Susan has a nose round Home Farm.
WED 19:15 Front Row (b080pxt4)
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b080vyvg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:41 today]
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (b080w5q2)
Combative, provocative and engaging debate chaired by Michael Buerk. With Claire Fox, Melanie Phillips, Giles Fraser and Matthew Taylor.
WED 20:45 Four Thought (b080w5q6)
Supporting Mothers
Kerry Littleford argues that mothers who have multiple children taken into care need help to stop it happening again.
As she shares her own story, Kerry makes the case for focusing not just on the children who have been taken into care, but the women whose problems haven't gone away.
Producer: Giles Edwards.
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (b080t880)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 Midweek (b080vyvb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 21:58 Weather (b080pxt6)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b080pxt8)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b080w5qb)
Days Without End, Episode 3
A new novel by the Irish author and twice Man Booker Prize finalist Sebastian Barry.
Thomas McNulty recounts how he, having fled Ireland when orphaned during the Great Famine, made his way across America as part of the U.S. Cavalry. With his long-time friend and companion John Cole, Thomas witnesses the birth of America - from the atrocities committed against the Native Americans to the horrors of the Civil War - and, ultimately, finds his own family and identity.
WED 23:00 Dr John Cooper Clarke at the BBC (b080w7lv)
Twisted Romance
The Bard of Salford performs a mixture of classic and previously unheard poems, recorded at the BBC's Radio Theatre in London.
Ep 1 - Twisted Romance
Set List:
I Married a Monster from Outta Space
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
Avocado Vignette
I Wanna Be Yours
Written and performed by Dr John Cooper Clarke
Introduction by Johnny Green
Produced by Joe Nunnery
A BBC Studios Production.
WED 23:15 Mae Martin's Guide to 21st Century Sexuality (b080w8bw)
Are We Asking the Right Questions?
Canadian stand-up Mae Martin presents her debut series for BBC Radio 4. Combining wickedly astute social observations with personal references to her own unique upbringing, Mae's taking a funny, personal look at how millennials are transforming the way that society thinks about sexuality and gender.
In the final episode of this series, Mae considers how vigilant we still need to be as a society when it comes to tackling intolerance. And also talks about Pompeii, because guys, seriously, what a disaster that was.
Written and performed by Mae Martin.
Script editor: Sarah Campbell
Producer: Alexandra Smith
A BBC Studios Production.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (b080wb34)
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.
THURSDAY 03 NOVEMBER 2016
THU 00:00 Midnight News (b080pxvz)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b080vyvd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b080pxw1)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b080pxw3)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b080pxw5)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (b080pxw7)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b080xj86)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Gopinder Kaur Sagoo.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (b080pxw9)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Sally Challoner.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dww4v)
Bar-Tailed Godwit
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 Bar-tailed Godwit. Bar-tailed godwits are waders which occur around the globe and are now known to make the longest non-stop journey of any migratory bird.
THU 06:00 Today (b081zdrt)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (b080wbrq)
Epic of Gilgamesh
"He who saw the Deep" are the first words of the standard version of The Epic of Gilgamesh, the subject of this discussion between Melvyn Bragg and his guests. Gilgamesh is often said to be the oldest surviving great work of literature, with origins in the third millennium BC, and it passed through thousands of years on cuneiform tablets. Unlike epics of Greece and Rome, the intact story of Gilgamesh became lost to later generations until tablets were discovered by Hormuzd Rassam in 1853 near Mosul and later translated. Since then, many more tablets have been found and much of the text has been reassembled to convey the story of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk the sheepfold, and Enkidu who the gods made to stop Gilgamesh oppressing his people. Together they fight Humbaba, monstrous guardian of the Cedar Forest, and kill the Bull of Heaven, for which the gods make Enkidu mortally ill. Gilgamesh goes on a long journey as he tries unsuccessfully to learn how to live forever, learning about the Great Deluge on the way, but his remarkable building works guarantee that his fame will last long after his death.
With
Andrew George
Fran Reynolds
and
Martin Worthington
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b080wbrs)
Keeping On Keeping On, 2013
Alan Bennett reads extracts from his recently published diaries.
Following on from Alan Bennett's bestselling, award-winning prose collections Writing Home and Untold Stories, Keeping On Keeping On is a newly-published third anthology featuring his unique observations, recollections and reminiscences.
In these entries, covering the years 2005 to 2014, Bennett looks back on a packed decade that included writing four highly-acclaimed plays - The Habit of Art, People, Hymn and Cocktail Sticks, all of which premiered at the National Theatre - as well as the screenplays for the hit films of The History Boys and The Lady in the Van.
In addition, he reflects on his 25 years of friendship and collaboration with director Nicholas Hytner, life with his partner Rupert Thomas and, radical views notwithstanding, his status as 'kindly, cosy and essentially harmless' - a view which these diaries do their best to disprove.
Today, Alan breaks into a medieval Abbey and acts on stage for the first time in 20 years.
Abridged and produced by Gordon House.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b080pxwc)
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b080wbrv)
The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles, Episode 4
The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles (Series 8) ep4/5
Drama series about a young couple with learning disabilities. Darleen's pregnancy is progressing at a pace, with up's and down's along the way. The more Darleen learns about the labour, the more terrified she becomes. Treena, Darleen's mother is in a quandary about her commitment to help Darleen once the baby is born, which could affect Darleen's chances of keeping her child.
Produced and Directed by Pauline Harris.
THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (b080wbrx)
Reports from writers and journalists around the world. Presented by Kate Adie.
THU 11:30 Butterfly Mind (b080wbrz)
Can a Shaman cure writer's block? David Greig goes on a very personal quest in an attempt to find out.
David Greig is one of our most respected and successful playwrights. He's also the Artistic Director of the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh.
But he is suffering from writer's block; he is 'exhausted, like a mined out mine'. He's tried many a cure, without success, and now he wants to visit a Shaman to see if there is a solution to be found somewhere in the spirit world.
As quests go, it's slightly odd, sometimes light-hearted but serious in parts...
Producer: Karen Gregor.
THU 12:00 News Summary (b080pxwf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 The Escaped Lyric (b081jm0b)
Lust
From teenage alienation to middle-aged loss and regret, lyrics from popular music can escape their song to become an anthem of our youth or a lifeline through loss and solitude. Nick Berkeley speaks to songwriters and musicians about how the words of a three minute pop song can come to have such impact on us all.
He dissects the craft of the song in a quest to understand the alchemy that converts seemingly simple words into thoughts of great impact and meaning. From Noel Coward to Kylie Minogue, seminal folk songs to outsider hip hop, there are words and phrases that the music fan can cling to, and remember, forever.
Contributors include: Hanif Kureishi, Brett Anderson, Cathy Dennis, Green Gartside, Benjamin Clementine, Christopher Ricks and Sid Griffin.
Programme Four: Lust
Producer: Emma Jarvis
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:15 You and Yours (b080pxwh)
Consumer affairs programme.
THU 12:57 Weather (b080pxwk)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 13:00 World at One (b080pxwm)
Analysis of news and current affairs.
THU 13:45 One to One (b06zr3zb)
Jan Ravens talks to Germaine Greer
Jan Ravens has created impressions of some of our most iconic women but all she has to work with is the public persona, how someone in the public eye presents themselves for our view. In her series of One to One she talks to some of her subjects about their image as seen by others and how it differs from how they see themselves. Is image something they have consciously created or has it sprung naturally from their personality and from the way they look? Jan wants to know if their self perception is changed through their portrayal by impressionists and cartoonists.
Is image a useful tool, or does it become a millstone around your neck ?
Academic and author, Germaine Greer, has been in the public eye for over forty years, she talks to Jan about the way her image has changed over the decades.
Producer Lucy Lunt.
THU 14:00 The Archers (b080w5py)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Afternoon Drama (b04n601b)
Desecration
Irish government official and secret British agent, Francis Byrne, must act fast to encourage resistance and prevent Ireland from becoming a launch pad for a Nazi invasion of Britain. But at what cost to the Irish people, and to his own loved ones?
Inspired by a recently discovered documents confirming Hitler's wartime plans to invade Ireland, and using both fictional and real characters, Desecration is a powerful counter-factual drama. It imagines how the first few days of such an invasion would have unfolded - and shows the stark moral dilemmas faced by a nation's leaders when the time comes to choose between resistance and collaboration.
Writer ..... Hugh Costello
Producer ..... Eoin O'Callaghan.
THU 15:00 Open Country (b080wbwy)
Wild Boar in the Forest of Dean
Helen Mark travels to the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire to encounter some of the wild boar who have made a home there in the last ten years.
The Forest clearly suits them because their numbers are growing exponentially, with over 1500 feral animals at the last count. The population can almost triple in a year, and with no cold winters or culture of boar-hunting in the UK, the wild boar here have nothing to fear, except the Forestry Commission's marksmen. Adult males can reach twenty stone, run at thirty miles an hour, and can jump or barge through all but the strongest of fences. Also they are not afraid of humans, so unlike deer, you can't just shoo them out of your garden.
Helen meets Dr John Dutton of the University of Worcester, who has made a study of human/boar social interaction in the Forest of Dean, and Kevin Stannard and Ian Harvey from the Forestry Commission, who have been landed with the task of managing numbers on their land.
Then there's Simon Gaskell of the Real Boar Company, who farms boar and sells it as charcuterie. He knows exactly what they're capable of. He describes one of his boar, a beast called Julian, as 'the great white shark' of the woodland. Julian would appear out of nowhere and charge for no apparent reason. But they're not all so bad-tempered, even though they are classed as a 'dangerous wild animal' for farming purposes.
Along unfenced verges, in gardens and on common land, Helen finds evidence of the boar everywhere. And if you're out for a stroll in the heart of the Forest, it's hard not to imagine them watching you from the cover of the undergrowth.
Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery.
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b080py3s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (b080py6b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b080wbx0)
Tom Ford
With Francine Stock
Fashion designer and movie director Tom Ford discusses his film-within-a-film Nocturnal Animals.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b080pxwp)
Adam Rutherford explores the science that is changing our world.
THU 17:00 PM (b080pxwr)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b080pxwt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 The Fair Intellectual Club (b080xj88)
An Encounter with Mr Newton
Lucy Porter's sitcom set in pre-enlightenment Edinburgh. This week intellectual giant Isaac Newton (Gavin Mitchell) is in town and he's struggling with a new theory to explain why things keep falling on his head.
He encounters the members of the Fair Intellectual club - a secret society for the scholarly improvement of young ladies. With the help of carefree socialite Ishbel (Caroline Deyga), devout clergyman's daughter Marjory (Samara Maclaren) and maths boffin Alison (Jessica Hardwick), the penny finally drops.
Mr Newton also has to contend with Alison's idiot brother Robert (Simon Donaldson), Ishbel's ancient retainer Kennedy (Gordon Kennedy) and a rented pineapple.
Music by Aly Macrae
Director: Marilyn Imrie
Producer: Gordon Kennedy
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 19:00 The Archers (b080xj8d)
Rob needles at any opportunity, and Roy gets back in the game.
THU 19:15 Front Row (b080pxww)
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b080wbrv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 Law in Action (b080t882)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Tuesday]
THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (b080xk99)
The Youth Market
Evan Davis and guests explore the fast moving world of selling to 18-24 year olds. Collectively, that age group has billions to spend. Individually, many are strapped for cash. So how do companies get their attention and their money? The answer seems to be: market your brand using social media. Link up with a celebrity with millions of followers and watch the money roll in. That's the theory. Forget old style television adverts. That age group isn't watching the box - they're on their mobiles. Joining the programme will be: Josephine Hansom from Youth Sight; Philip O'Ferrall, Viacom International Media Networks and Simon Beckerman from Depop.
Producer: Lesley McAlpine.
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b080pxwp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (b080wbrq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 21:58 Weather (b080pxwy)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b080pxx0)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b080xk9c)
Days Without End, Episode 4
A new novel by the Irish author and twice Man Booker Prize finalist Sebastian Barry.
Thomas McNulty recounts how he, having fled Ireland when orphaned during the Great Famine, made his way across America as part of the U.S. Cavalry. With his long-time friend and companion John Cole, Thomas witnesses the birth of America - from the atrocities committed against the Native Americans to the horrors of the Civil War - and, ultimately, finds his own family and identity.
THU 23:00 Rich Hall's (US Election) Breakdown (b080w5pw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:30 on Wednesday]
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (b07zztt2)
Sean Curran reports from Westminster as Jeremy Corbyn says the Government has "no plan" for the UK's exit from the EU, but Theresa May says he is trying to frustrate the will of the people.
The International Trade Secretary, Liam Fox, faces a challenge from MPs over why they were not given a say over the trade deal between the EU and Canada which has been blocked by Belgium.
And ministers face accusations that they showed a "complete lack of urgency" in responding to concerns that a Government contractor was incorrectly withdrawing tax credits from hundreds of claimants.
FRIDAY 04 NOVEMBER 2016
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b080pxym)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b080wbrs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b080pxyp)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b080pxyr)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b080pxyt)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b080pxyw)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b081zgb6)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Gopinder Kaur Sagoo.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b080pxyy)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Vernon Harwood.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03bkg3b)
Short-Eared Owl
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Wildlife Sound Recordist, Chris Watson, presents the Short-eared Owl. Short-eared owls, one of our most spectacular birds of prey, are nomads, roaming over vast areas of open countryside and breeding where they find their favourite habitat of moorland or long grass.
FRI 06:00 Today (b081zcgy)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b080py3v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b080xp2f)
Keeping On Keeping On, 2014
Alan Bennett reads extracts from his recently published diaries.
Following on from Alan Bennett's bestselling, award-winning prose collections Writing Home and Untold Stories, Keeping On Keeping On is a newly-published third anthology featuring his unique observations, recollections and reminiscences.
In these entries, covering the years 2005 to 2014, Bennett looks back on a packed decade that included writing four highly-acclaimed plays - The Habit of Art, People, Hymn and Cocktail Sticks, all of which premiered at the National Theatre - as well as the screenplays for the hit films of The History Boys and The Lady in the Van.
In addition, he reflects on his 25 years of friendship and collaboration with director Nicholas Hytner, life with his partner Rupert Thomas and, radical views notwithstanding, his status as 'kindly, cosy and essentially harmless' - a view which these diaries do their best to disprove.
Today, Alan reflects on his dramatic experiences with pigs, boa constrictors and steaming - or not so steaming - manure.
Abridged and produced by Gordon House.
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b080pxz0)
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b080xp2h)
The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles, Episode 5
The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles (Series 8) ep5/5
by Esther Wilson
Delightfully irreverent drama series about a young couple with learning disabilities. Darleen turns up at the hospital as she thinks she's gone into labour, on more than one occasion, and then it happens for real!
Produced and directed by Pauline Harris.
FRI 11:00 Recycled Radio (b080xp2k)
Series 5, The Voice
Cartoonist Gerald Scarfe introduces a chopped up, looped up love letter to sound, singing, seduction and the power of the voice. So take a moment to consider the air in your lungs while listening to Bobby McFerrin and Beardyman make amazing musical sounds.
Here you'll hear why our vocal chords work much like a duck, and why Theresa May represents a century long pattern of working women who have lowered their voice. Elsewhere Stephen Pinker mingles with Stephen Fry; Donald Trump reveals the power of saying the right thing to an audience who want to be seduced; and John Prescott tangles with Noam Chomsky over grammar and class.
The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde.
FRI 11:30 My Teenage Diary (b04vj1xg)
Series 6, Lucy Worsley
Rufus Hound is joined by the historian Lucy Worsley, whose diaries reveal that she was swottier than the average teenager. While her friends were out at parties, Lucy was curating her collection of rocks, and gardening.
Produced by Harriet Jaine
A Talkback production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:00 News Summary (b080pxz2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 The Escaped Lyric (b081b3wx)
Absence
Nick Berkeley explores the world of the song lyric and the ways they can help us articulate and negotiate different aspects of our lives: from hedonist joy to dealing with loss.
From teenage alienation to middle-aged loss and regret, lyrics from popular music can escape their song to become an anthem of our youth, or a lifeline through loss and solitude. Nick Berkeley speaks to songwriters and musicians about how the words of a three minute pop song can come to have such impact on us all.
He dissects the craft of the song in a quest to understand the alchemy that converts seemingly simple words into thoughts of great impact and meaning. From Noel Coward to Kylie Minogue, seminal folk songs to outsider hip hop, there are words and phrases that the music fan can cling to, and remember, forever.
Contributors include: Hanif Kureishi, Brett Anderson, Cathy Dennis, Green Gartside, Benjamin Clementine, Christopher Ricks and Sid Griffin.
Programme Five: Absence
Producer: Emma Jarvis
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:15 You and Yours (b080pxz4)
Consumer news and issues.
FRI 12:57 Weather (b080pxz6)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 13:00 World at One (b080pxz8)
Analysis of news and current affairs.
FRI 13:45 One to One (b070dksc)
Jan Ravens talks to Lyse Doucet
Actress and impressionist, Jan Ravens talks to one of her favourite subjects, the BBC's Chief International Correspondent, Lyse Doucet. They discuss how much her public image reflects her private self and how much consideration she gives to clothes and jewellery when appearing on television .
Producer Lucy Lunt.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (b080xj8d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (b080xppt)
How the Marquis Got His Coat Back
It is beautiful. It is remarkable. It is unique. It is the colour of a wet street at midnight, and, more important than any of these things, it has Style.
The Marquis de Carabas has been having a rather stressful time of it. Being killed by the villainous duo Vandemar and Croup, having his body sold by the sewer people, and brought back to life with the aid of Old Bailey is enough to test the endurance of most people. But as if that isn't bad enough, the Marquis has lost his coat. It's not just any old coat. It is mysterious and unique and makes him the man he is. And he wants it back.
Neil Gaiman takes us back to the London Below of 'Neverwhere' in this new adventure as we accompany the Marquis on his quest to discover who has his coat - and, most importantly of all - to get his coat back. As he travels through the tunnels and sewers of subterranean London the Marquis encounters some of the most dangerous and treacherous inhabitants of London Below, comes face to face with an old enemy, and - worst of all - is forced to accept help from someone very close to home .
Adapted by Dirk Maggs from the story by Neil Gaiman, 'How the Marquis Got his Coat Back' sees Paterson Joseph once again don the coat of the Marquis de Carabas which he first wore twenty years ago in the 1996 BBC TV dramatisation of 'Neverwhere'. He is joined by Adrian Lester (Undercover, Hustle), Don Warrington (Death in Paradise, Rising Damp), Mitch Benn (Good Omens, The Now Show) and Divian Ladwah (Detectorists) while Bernard Cribbins reprises his role of Old Bailey from the Radio 4 production of 'Neverwhere'.
Sound Design ..... Dirk Maggs
Producer ..... Heather Larmour.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b080xx09)
Harthill
Eric Robson presents the show from Harthill in South Yorkshire. Joining Eric this week are Matthew Wilson, Bunny Guinness and Anne Swithinbank.
Produced by Dan Cocker
Assistant producer: Laurence Bassett
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:45 Autumn Lady's Tresses (b080xx0m)
by David Constantine
Each summer Gwen and Polly roam across their tiny holiday island, returning to old haunts and visiting familiar landmarks. But this year, after terrible winter storms, everything has shifted.
Read by Joanna Tope
Producer Eilidh McCreadie
David Constantine is an acclaimed poet, fiction writer and translator. A recipient of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and the Forward Poetry prize, his short story 'In Another Country' was adapted as the award-winning feature film '45 Years'.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (b080xx0z)
Obituary series, analysing and celebrating the life stories of people who have recently died.
FRI 16:30 More or Less (b081tq55)
Tim Harford investigates the numbers in the news.
FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (b080xx15)
Darren and Donna - I'm Starting to Believe in Myself
Fi Glover introduces a conversation between friends who have battled poverty and addiction and find themselves in a better place. 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 (b080pxzb)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b080pxzd)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The Now Show (b080xx1d)
Series 49, Episode 1
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (b080xx1g)
Rex has the final word, and Kirsty despairs at the panto audition.
FRI 19:15 Front Row (b080pxzg)
News, reviews and interviews from the worlds of art, literature, film and music.
FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b080xp2h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b080xx1k)
Lord Ashdown, John Mann MP, Nicky Morgan MP, Laura Perrins
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion Wheatley Park School in Oxford with a panel including the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Ashdown, Labour MP John Mann, former Education Secretary Nicky Morgan MP and the co-editor of The Conservative Woman blogspot Laura Perrins.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b080xx1r)
America Votes
A reflection on a topical issue.
FRI 21:00 Incarnations: India in 50 Lives (b082r4lv)
Incarnations: India in 50 Lives - Omnibus, Charaka, Aryabhata, Rajaraja Chola and Basavana
An omnibus edition of Professor Sunil Khilnani's audio portraits of figures who have shaped the arc of Indian history over two thousand years.
He begins with a visit to a modern-day clinic which follows the practises set out by Charaka, a medical pioneer whose handbook is still widely in use. His text, known as the Charaka Samhita or 'Compendium of Charaka', is an encyclopaedic work covering different aspects of health and how to live a good life.
He stays in the world of science and medicine with a look at Aryabhata, a mathematician and astronomer whose work, in the fifth or six century, predates some of the discoveries made in the West many years later.
His next subject takes us to the land of the Tamils in the South East India. Rajaraja Chola was a cult-figure and self-styled king of kings who ordered the construction of one of India's most magnificent temples built around the 11th. Some see the period of his reign and that of his son Rajendra as the era when the centre of gravity of Indian history moved southwards.
He ends on a poetic note with a portrait of Basavana, a religious guru whose words have inspired many writers today'
Produced by Mark Savage.
FRI 21:58 Weather (b080pxzj)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b080pxzl)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b080xx1v)
Days Without End, Episode 5
A new novel by the Irish author and twice Man Booker Prize finalist Sebastian Barry.
Thomas McNulty recounts how he, having fled Ireland when orphaned during the Great Famine, made his way across America as part of the U.S. Cavalry. With his long-time friend and companion John Cole, Thomas witnesses the birth of America - from the atrocities committed against the Native Americans to the horrors of the Civil War - and, ultimately, finds his own family and identity.
FRI 23:00 A Good Read (b080t884)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (b080xx1y)
Mark D'Arcy reports from Westminster.
FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (b080xxwx)
Avril and Patricia - Nothing Will Come Between Us
Fi Glover introduces a conversation about a friendship that has survived the distance between them, since one of the pair moved away. 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.