SATURDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2016

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (b082vz99)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

SAT 00:30 Letters from America (b083h0x9)
John Gray

As the dust settles after the controversial US presidential election campaign, five acclaimed writers give their point of view on where America goes now.

SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b082vz9c)
The latest shipping forecast.

SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b082vz9f)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at 5.20am.

SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b082vz9h)
The latest shipping forecast.

SAT 05:30 News Briefing (b082vz9k)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b0834by2)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster, Anna Magnusson.

SAT 05:45 iPM (b082vz9m)
Yes, No, Maybe?

Before Jennifer Tracey takes a break from co-presenting iPM, she selects some stand out interviews and moments from her nine years on the programme. iPM@bbc.co.uk.

SAT 06:00 News and Papers (b082vz9p)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.

SAT 06:04 Weather (b082vz9r)
The latest weather forecast.

SAT 06:07 Open Country (b0833vmw)
Sathnam Sanghera goes home to Wolverhampton

Wolverhampton, at the heart of the industrial revolution, has never been known for its beautiful landscape. The story goes that when Queen Victoria passed through she asked for the curtains in her carriage to be drawn because she was so offended by the sight of the town.
Writer, Sathnam Sanghera grew up with a railway running through his back garden and an industrial estate running alongside his street. For this edition of Open Country he returns to his home town, now a city, and finds a burgeoning natural scene, he goes birdwatching at Smestow Valley, discovers why otters are thriving along a particular patch of the Staffordshire and Worcester canal and even canoes in a thriving local waterway.
The producer is Perminder Khatkar.

SAT 06:30 Farming Today (b082vz9t)
Farming Today This Week

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Sally Challoner.

SAT 06:57 Weather (b082vz9w)
The latest weather forecast.

SAT 07:00 Today (b083j4rh)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (b082vz9y)
Aled Jones

Aled Jones will forever be associated with the song he made a hit - Walking in the Air. Now he's released a seasonal CD where he sings in harmony with his 14 year old self. He'll join Richard and Aasmah in the studio.

Tez Ilyas left the civil service for comedy after doing a Saturday course in stand up. He's since appeared in eight competition finals, had a show in Edinburgh and wrote and performed the Tez Talks series about how to be a Muslim on BBC Radio 4.

A chance conversation with a friend at university has taken Kate Munro all around the world making snow sculptures. Every year, Kate spends 3 days and 3 nights in sub-zero temperatures, carving a 3 metre block of snow into a beautiful sculpture.

Fred Sirieix is Maître d' on First Dates, the Bafta award winning hit Channel 4 dating show, but he's also general manager of a top Michelin starred restaurant, and runs a service training company which helps prisoners train to work in restaurants.

JP meets John Richards who went on a mission to play every Cathedral organ in Britain.

Alan Davies gives us his Inheritance Tracks, he chooses Topol singing If I were a rich man, and Billy Bragg's St. Swithin's Day and we have your Thank yous.

Aled's new album is called One Voice at Christmas
Tez Ilyas will be touring in the New Year
First Dates, the art of love by Fred Sirieix is out now
Alan Davies' DVD Little Victories is released on 28th November

Producer: Corinna Jones
Editor: Karen Dalziel.

SAT 10:30 Reimagining the City (b083j4rk)
Series 3, Preston

"We're five minutes from Preston High Street and it's almost silent," says artist and lecturer Lubaina Himid. "It's like a very big village - it was only made a city very recently."

Lubaina guides us round her adoptive city - from the "splendid" Harris Art Gallery which houses some of her own work, to the sweeping landscapes of the parks which run along the River Ribble, and on to her own studio space where so much of her creativity happens.

"The best thing about the city is that it gives you creative space - there's more time than there would be in a city like London. There are a lot of artists in Preston, all of us work hard making and thinking about art...I can't idle away three or four hours gossiping in an art centre because there isn't one!"

Lubaina's father was from Zanzibar and her mother was English. She left Zanzibar as a small child and grew up in London.

Alongside the sense of the city which she creates for us, we also learn about her own creative journey. Lubaina was part of the radical black art movement of the 1980s. Now she curates an archive of black and ethnic minority artists within the University of Central Lancashire.

"My mother was a textile designer, so the possibility of being an artist was always there. But I realised my blackness was an issue - in art college it was a real challenge. For me, teaching in art school is about making it better for the next generation."

There is gladness and regret for Lubaina about having lived in Preston for so long. Regret that she couldn't make living in London work, but gladness that there has been so much time and opportunity for her art to flourish in Preston.

Produced by Rachel Hooper
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.

SAT 11:00 Week in Westminster (b083j4rm)
Paul Waugh of the Huffington Post looks behind the scenes at Westminster.
The Editor is Marie Jessel.

SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (b082vzb0)
Reports from writers and journalists around the world. Presented by Kate Adie.

SAT 12:00 News Summary (b082vzb2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

SAT 12:04 Money Box (b083j4rp)
Your insurance premium tax is set to rise. Again.

The latest news from the world of personal finance.

SAT 12:30 The Now Show (b08349f2)
Series 49, Episode 4

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis are joined by Andy Zaltzman, Mae Martin, Luke Kempner, Freya Parker, Greg Jenner and Adam Kay to present the news via topical stand up and sketches.

Written by the cast with additional material from Jon Hunter, Liam Beirne, Jenny Laville, Max Davis and Laura Majors.

Producer Alexandra Smith

BBC Studios Production.

SAT 12:57 Weather (b082vzb4)
The latest weather forecast.

SAT 13:00 News (b082vzb6)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (b08349f6)
Alastair Campbell, Chris Grayling MP, Rebecca Long Bailey MP, Merryn Somerset Webb.

Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from Sheffield University Technical College.

SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (b082vzb8)
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.

SAT 14:30 Drama (b05z6dz1)
Born in the DDR

The Berlin Wall fell in November '89. But the bricks started crumbling long before that - and were given a mighty kick by a Rock'n'Roll band from New Jersey. This is the madcap and improbable true story of how the Stasi licensed a Bruce Springsteen gig in East Berlin, and started something they couldn't stop.

In 1987, both Pink Floyd and David Bowie play at the Reichstag, deliberately pointing the speakers towards the East. The result is rioting on the Eastern side - Glasnost has arrived and East German youth wants some. 'Pony' Ponesky, an East German band manager (no easy job) knows something has to be done - the hard line won't work any more, they have to provide their own rock concerts. He is granted a rare luxury: a phone call to the West. And when he speaks to the promoter of Bruce Springsteen's Tunnel of Love Tour, the answer - freakishly, unbelievably, miraculously - is Yes! Who'd've guessed Bruce has always wanted to play East Berlin? Now all he has to do is sell the idea to the Stasi...

Jonathan Myerson's entertaining drama follows the rollercoaster tale of how 200,000 East Germans got to sing 'Born In The USA', in front of the Party hierarchy - and how one crazy night in Berlin fired the hearts of a generation.

The full story of the concert is told in the book 'Rocking The Wall', by Erik Kirschbaum.

Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting.

SAT 15:30 The Sound of Soweto (b082ymp7)
Johannesburg-based poet Thabiso Mohare explores the music of Soweto from the 1970s onwards, through the unrest that led to democracy in 1994, and takes a look at the music scene today. From Sowetan Soul stars influenced by the black power movement of the 70s, to platinum selling acapella groups making waves around the world today, he talks to musicians about the way they have interpreted and adapted their rich musical heritage, asking how important the strong tradition of dissent in South African music is to them, and looks at why influences both local and global have always come into play in Soweto. Featuring interviews with Sipho 'Hotstix' Mabuse, Mandla Mlangeni, BCUC and The Soil.

SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (b082vzbb)
Weekend Woman's Hour

Highlights from the Woman's Hour week.Presented by Jenni Murray
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Jane Thurlow.

SAT 17:00 PM (b082vzbd)
Saturday PM

Full coverage of the day's news.

SAT 17:30 iPM (b082vz9m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:45 today]

SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b082vzbg)
The latest shipping forecast.

SAT 17:57 Weather (b082vzbj)
The latest weather forecast.

SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b082vzbl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (b082vzbn)
Michael Palin, Elaine Paige, Ralf Little, Beth Orton, Anoushka Shankar, Clive Anderson, Scottee

Clive Anderson and Scottee are joined by Michael Palin, Elaine Paige and Ralf Little for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Beth Orton and Anoushka Shankar.

Producer: Debbie Kilbride.

SAT 19:00 Profile (b083j66z)
Michel Barnier

Series of profiles of people who are currently making headlines.

SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (b082vzbq)
The Children, The Wailing, Rillington Place, Penelope Lively, Victor Pasmore

Young British playwright Lucy Kirkwood's latest play The Children opens at London's Royal Court Theatre: three old friends discussing the future after an unnamed disaster
Korean horror drama film The Wailing has been gaining a lot of international attention - combining a ghost story and zombies and a police drama
Tim Roth plays the serial murderer John Christie in BBC TV's Rillington Place. A three part series, it looks at the story from the points of view of Christie, his wife and the lodger who was wrongly hanged for the murders.
Penelope Lively's latest collection of short stories is called "Purple Swamp Hen"
There's a new exhibition in Nottingham of the work of the late Victor Pasmore, British abstract artist and educator

Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Blake Morrison, Barb Jungr and Andrea Rose. The producer is Oliver Jones.

SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (b083j672)
Logan's Run and Intergenerational War

In 1967 the novel 'Logan's Run' proposed a dystopian solution to overpopulation and lack of resources- the (voluntary, willing) self-culling of those over twenty one years of age. 50 years on, the novel's themes of intergenerational war and the redundancy of the old have a particular poignancy.

In this Archive on Four, Ed Howker looks at how the then futuristic themes of 'Logan's Run' have manifested themselves in the reality of 21st century society. Large swathes of the capitalist world seem to have adopted the novel's plot as policy, such as in Silicon Valley, for example, where hardly anyone is over the age of 30. At the same time there is a huge discrepancy in wealth and resources held by the young and old, often held up as the source of conflict in 'generational unfairness'.

Ed Howker looks at the state of the young and the old and asks if implementing a 'Sleepshop', where the 21-year-olds of 'Logan's Run' fade out in a narcotic haze for the benefit of those younger, seems such a bad idea after all.

Producer Mark Rickards.

SAT 21:00 Drama (b082wxvk)
Robert Louis Stevenson: Kidnapped, Episode 1

1 / 2. David Tennant introduces RLS's gripping adventure story, dramatised by Chris Dolan.
In 1751 - in the aftermath of the Jacobite rebellions - young David Balfour, a staunch supporter of George II,
is newly orphaned and goes in search of his father's family near Edinburgh. When he is press-ganged on board
a ship bound for the slave plantations of America, he forges an unlikely alliance with the charismatic Highlander, Alan Breck.

Other parts played by the cast.
Producer/Director Bruce Young
BBC Scotland.

SAT 22:00 News and Weather (b082vzbs)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.

SAT 22:15 Moral Maze (b0832rjj)
The Psychology of Morality

Go on - admit it. You like to feel you're above average. Don't worry. We all like to feel we're somehow special - that our gifts make us stand out from - and above - the crowd. Psychologists refer to this phenomenon as positive illusion. It's the sort of self-deception that helps maintain our self-esteem; a white lie we tell ourselves. The classic example is driving: the majority of people regard themselves as more skilful and less risky than the average driver. But research just published shows that this characteristic isn't confined to skills like driving. Experiments carried out by psychologists at London's Royal Holloway University found most people strongly believe they are just, virtuous and moral and yet regard the average person as - well, how shall we put it politely? Let's just say - distinctly less so. Virtually all the those taking part irrationally inflated their moral qualities. Worse, the positive illusion of moral superiority is much stronger and more prevalent than any other form of positive illusion. Now, as a programme that's been testing our nation's moral fibre for more than 25 years, we feel this is something we're uniquely qualified to talk about. Well, we would wouldn't we? So, if we can't entirely rely on our own calibration to judge a person's moral worth, how should we go about it? Is the answer better and clearer rules, a kind of updated list of commandments? There might need to be a lot more than ten though. Does legal always mean moral? In a world that is becoming increasingly fractious, being less morally judgmental sounds attractive, but if we accept that morality is merely a matter of cognitive bias, do we take the first step on the road to moral relativism? The Moral Maze - making moral judgements so you don't have to. Witnesses are David Oderberg, Michael Frohlich, Anne Atkins and Julian Savulescu.

SAT 23:00 Round Britain Quiz (b082xc05)
Programme 4, 2016

(4/12)
'Why might 'Night-hawks' and 'Automat' appear to move in the same way as works by John Godber and Tom Stoppard?'

Tom Sutcliffe is in the chair for another bout of convoluted verbal problem-solving. This week the South of England pairing of Paul Sinha and Marcus Berkmann take on the Scots, Val McDermid and Alan McCredie - both teams playing their second fixture of the season. As they work their way through the questions they'll be looking for guidance from the chairman to steer them away from blind alleys and false trails - but the more help he has to give them, the more points he'll deduct from their scores.

The programme includes the usual scattering of suggestions from Round Britain Quiz listeners, and Tom will be setting another teaser puzzle at the end of the programme to keep you guessing until next time.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.

SAT 23:30 A Vision on Peckham Rye (b082wwlm)
"Sauntering along the boy looks up and sees a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough, like stars"

When Levi Roots was 15, a teacher read out William Blake's The Tyger to the class. For Levi, it was a life-changing moment. The singer and entrepreneur had only just learned to read and describes the poem as exploding into his brain the way no words ever had before.

Levi returns to South East London to find out more about his favourite poet and uncover the story of Blake's supposed first vision of angels bespangling the branches of a tree on Peckham Rye at the age of "8 or 10".

Writers, poets and artists continue to draw inspiration from this idea and we hear from some of them about why Blake, and especially this story, continues to have such powerful resonance.

David Almond, explains how Blake crept into his novel Skellig and why he thinks that childhood imagination is different from that of adults. Chris McCabe has been researching the poetic vibrations of the area across the centuries for a book about the lost poets of Nunhead Cemetery, Cenotaph South, and accompanies Levi on a quest to find Blake's tree. The filmmaker Sarah Turner recreated the angel incident for her film Public House, about the successful community takeover of a local pub. Levi, his guests, and students from Harris Girls Academy, a school that sits on the Rye take some time to look into the trees and see if they can find any traces of Blake's angels. What could those angels be and why does Blake, despite his difficulty, seem to ignite the passions of young people?

The programme includes readings by Peter Marinker, Chris McCabe, Levi Roots, Georgia Peskett, Barnaby Steed, David Almond and the students of Harris Girls Academy East Dulwich.

The choral piece, Criers of Peckham Rye, was for the film Public House by Duncan Macleod and performed by Dulwich Folk Choir and Duncan Macleod. The programme features other extracts from the film Public House made and sound designed by Sarah Turner.

Producer: Natalie Steed
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.

SUNDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2016

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b083l8lj)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

SUN 00:30 A Rage Explained (b08343jq)
Alex Wheatle's autobiographical account of his first visit to Jamaica in 1987, where he met his father for the first time since being placed in a children's home at the age of two. But the meeting is charged with conflicting emotions.

Alex Wheatle was born to Jamaican parents living in London. At 18 he was involved in the Brixton uprising and went to prison for three months. On his release, he continued to perform as a DJ and MC under the name Yardman Irie, moving in the early '90s on to the performance poetry circuit as The Brixton Bard. Alex has written nine novels, including East of Acre Lane, and was awarded the MBE for services to literature in 2008. He has just won the Guardian Children's Fiction prize.

Writer: Alex Wheatle
Reader: Anthony Welsh
Producer: Jeremy Osborne

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.

SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b083l8ll)
The latest shipping forecast.

SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b083l8ln)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at 5.20am.

SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b083l8lq)
The latest shipping forecast.

SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b083l8ls)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b083m1vp)
St Wilfred's, York

This week's Bells on Sunday, comes from St Wilfred's Roman Catholic Church, York. The tower contains a peal of 10 bells, with the tenor weighing 18 hundredweight and tuned to the key of F. The second bell cast in 1995 is inscribed with the words "Ringers, Ring with one accord, make beautiful music to praise the Lord.".

SUN 05:45 Profile (b083j66z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]

SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b083l8lv)
The latest national and international news.

SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b083l8lx)
The Unfamiliar

The attractions of unfamiliarity are many - a cure for ennui, antidote to monotony, stimulation for jaded appetites. What is it about the strange, the new or the exotic that exerts such an appeal?

Mark Tully explores the attraction of the unfamiliar and the important role our hunger for new places, new people, new fashions and new experiences plays in understanding the world.

There is music from Gavin Bryars, Claude Debussy and Johnny Cash and readings from John Masefield, Rita Dove and philosopher Dale Andrews.

The readers are Paapa Essiedu and Emma Pallant.

Producer: Frank Stirling
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4.

SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (b083m1vr)
Cattle Blessing in the Burren

In most places cattle are bought down from the mountains for the winter. In The Burren, in the west of Ireland, they do it the opposite way round, taking the cows up to the high limestone hills for 'winterage'. Ella McSweeney finds out why on a traditional cattle drive, and she learns how this unique way of farming enables a unique array of wild flowers to bloom in the spring.

Producer: Sarah Swadling.

SUN 06:57 Weather (b083l8lz)
The latest weather forecast.

SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b083l8m1)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.

SUN 07:10 Sunday (b083l8m3)
Escape from Isis; Tutu's daughter's call to Anglicanism; Scale of Jewish genetic disorders revealed

In his first UK broadcast interview the Syrian Catholic priest captured by IS, Father Jacques Mourad, talks to Sima Kotecha about his ordeal and the circumstances of his release.

One of the largest surveys of UK Sikh's was published this week. Its authors argue the results will lead to a shake-up of the Government's approach to the needs of British Sikhs. Dr Obinderjit Kaur Takhar talks about its findings.

The daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mpho Tutu van Furth, talks to Rev Charlotte Bannister-Parker about giving up her priest's license in order to marry her female partner and why she thinks it's time that the Anglican Church took a different view on same-sex marriage.

One in five Ashkenazi Jews is a carrier of at least one severe recessive Jewish genetic disorder. Screening can help prevent diseases being passed onto children but the UK lags far behind other countries in this field. Katrina Sarig, Director of Jnetics, tells Sima Kotecha about a new campaign to change this.

A camera designed for astrophysics research has helped to bring 150 thousand Birmingham Muslims together for morning prayers. Dr Shahid Merali, the man behind the innovative project, explains why.

Last year 824,300 people attended Cathedral Advent services - the highest for a decade. This Advent Sunday Hazel Southam reports on why more and more people are attracted to Cathedral.

Segregation along racial lines is still a major issue in UK Pentecostal churches. An event bringing black and white churches together happened this weekend and Trevor Barnes went along to meet Dr Joe Aldred and Dr Andrew Davies and find out why things might be starting to change.

Producers: Catherine Earlam
Dan Tierney
Series Producer: Amanda Hancox.

SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (b083m1vt)
Action on Poverty

The comedian Jo Brand makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Action on Poverty.
Registered Charity Number 290836
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 'Action on Poverty.'
- Cheques should be made payable to 'Action on Poverty.'.

SUN 07:57 Weather (b083l8m5)
The latest weather forecast.

SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b083l8m7)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.

SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b083l8m9)
Hear the Call

For the first Sunday in Advent as St Andrew's Day approaches, live from St Salvator's Chapel in the University of St Andrews.
With the University Chaplain, The Rev Donald MacEwan and St Salvator's Chapel Choir directed by Thomas Wilkinson.
Readings: Isaiah 49: 1-6
John 1: 35-42
Hymns: Of the Father's love begotten (Corde Natus)
I waited patiently for God (Bays of Harris)
I heard the voice of Jesus say (The Rowan Tree)
Jesus calls us! (St Andrew)
Anthems: O Nata Lux (Tallis)
O Radiant Dawn (MacMillan)
Producer: Mo McCullough.

SUN 08:48 A Point of View (b08349f8)
A Liberal Credo

Adam Gopnik muses on liberals and liberalism - and why liberalism is so despised.

"At a moment when it seems likely to be drowned out in America" he writes, "I shall make a small forlorn effort to speak its truths".

Producer: Adele Armstrong.

SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b03tj99h)
Wigeon

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

John Aitchison presents the wigeon. Wigeon are dabbling ducks and related to mallards and teal but unlike these birds Wigeon spend much of their time out of the water grazing waterside pastures with their short blue-grey bills. The drakes are handsome-looking birds with chestnut heads and a cream forehead which contrasts well with their pale grey bodies.

John Aitchison recorded a flock of wigeon, for Tweet listeners, on a pool in Norfolk where they had found a safe place to roost on an island.

SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b083l8mc)
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 (b083l8mf)
Rob acquires new ammunition, and the Grundys pull out all the stops.

SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (b083m2zq)
Emma Bridgewater

Emma Bridgewater is a British ceramic designer and businesswoman. She set up her pottery business in 1985 in Stoke-on-Trent, when many other manufacturers in the city were either closing down or going overseas. Her pottery is instantly recognizable, decorated with polka dots, stars, hearts or elegant lettering using 19th century sponge-printing techniques.

It is an unlikely career for someone who studied English at University. Together with her husband, illustrator Matthew Rice, Emma Bridgewater has played a part in keeping the pottery tradition alive in Stoke-on-Trent. The factory also now hosts an annual literary festival.

She was awarded a CBE in 2013 for services to industry.

Producer: Sarah Taylor.

SUN 12:00 News Summary (b083l8mh)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

SUN 12:04 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b082xc0c)
Series 66, Episode 2

The 66th series of Radio 4's multi award-winning antidote to panel games promises more homespun wireless entertainment for the young at heart. This week the programme pays a return visit to the Charter Hall in Colchester. Regulars Barry Cryer, Tony Hawks and Tim Brooke-Taylor are once again joined on the panel by Pippa Evans with Jack Dee in the chair. At the piano - Colin Sell. Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Studios production.

SUN 12:32 Food Programme (b083m2zs)
Cookbooks of 2016

Sheila Dillon and guests discuss the year's food and cookery books - focussing on debut food books.

Joining Sheila in the studio is cook, gardener and writer Jojo Tulloh, journalist and food writer Alex Renton, and the Features Editor at the trade magazine The Bookseller, Tom Tivnan. Also, offering up her 2016 choices - is food loving BBC 6 Music DJ, Cerys Matthews.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon
Producer: Rich Ward.

SUN 12:57 Weather (b083l8mk)
The latest weather forecast.

SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b083l8mm)
Global news and analysis.

SUN 13:30 From Our Home Correspondent (b083m2zz)
In the latest programme, 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 (b08343jm)
Tower of London

Eric Robson and the panel visit the Tower of London. Pippa Greenwood, Matt Biggs and Chris Beardshaw answer this week's horticultural questions.

They discuss easy-to-grow edibles, how best to defend against a Thrip infestation and what to plant to reduce air pollution.

Matt Biggs delves into the horticultural history of the Tower, discovering the planting habits of a very famous prisoner along the way.

Produced by Dan Cocker
Assistant producer: Hannah Newton

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.

SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (b083m301)
Sunday Omnibus

Fi Glover introduces conversations between a long-standing mixed race couple, a retired funeral director and semi-retired journalist, and friends who are horse-owners, all in the Omnibus edition of the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject

Producer: Marya Burgess.

SUN 15:00 Drama (b083m303)
Robert Louis Stevenson: Kidnapped, Episode 2

2 / 2. Stevenson's gripping adventure story, dramatised by Chris Dolan.
After the murder of the Red Fox, Alan and David are pursued through the
Highlands by a troop of English soldiers. Hunted almost to the point of exhaustion
the pair decide to head south to confront Alan's treacherous uncle, Ebenezer.

Other parts played by the cast.
Producer/Director Bruce Young
BBC Scotland.

SUN 16:00 Open Book (b083m305)
Writers Helen Garner and Charlotte Wood, Authors' manuscripts, Chris Cleave, The history of audio books

Two great Australian writers, Helen Garner and Charlotte Wood, talk to Mariella Frostrup about their writing process, their latest books and the state of women's writing in Australia now.
Also in the programme, the history of audio book,s and - as the original manuscript of Jane Eyre is published in a new edition - we explore the pleasure of seeing a writers' actual handwriting on the page. And thriller writer Chris Cleave sends a shaggy dog story from America.

SUN 16:30 Hiraeth (b083m307)
Poet Mab Jones explores the concept of 'Hiraeth' in the poetry of Wales and further afield

Hiraeth, a central theme of Welsh language poetry and song, is a feeling of something lost, a long time ago, whether national identity or a once-important language.
It has deep roots - some link it to the loss of self-determination in 1282. It has no equivalent in English, often translating as 'homesickness', but incorporating an aspect of impossibility: the pining for a home, a person, even a national history that may never have actually existed. To feel hiraeth is to experience a deep sense of incompleteness. Longing and absence has infused Welsh songs and poetry for centuries, so perhaps in the national temperament there's a perpetual tension between staying and leaving, a yearning for something better, a grief for something left behind. But there are equivalents in other languages - in Portuguese, 'saudade' is an impossible longing for the unattainable, so there are occurrences of the sentiment across a wide cultural spectrum.

But if the English don't have a word for it, does that mean they don't feel it, or that they don't need it? For some, like Mab's former Professor at Swansea, M Wynn Thomas, 'hiraeth' can function as a default nostalgia button, and a dangerous tendency to believe things were better in the past. It's an experience characteristic of the powerless, the dispossessed; it's the signature tune of loss, but is this hopeless and persistent longing holding this small nation back?

Mab Jones is a poet and performer both humorous and deeply serious. She stands outside the Welsh language tradition, claims she doesn't feel hiraeth (not for Wales anyway - possibly for Japan), and for Radio 4 questions and pokes at the concept, visiting the National Eisteddfod for the first time in an attempt to put her finger on exactly what it is. Exploring the concept through poetry that expresses it, from the poets Menna Elfyn and Ifor ap Glyn she hears poems and songs that deal with aspects of Welsh history that might explain the continued existence of the word in Welsh - forced removals from much loved homes through industrialisation and military eviction. And she talks to writers who live between two worlds and struggle with a sense of belonging: Pamela Petro, an American writer who fell in love with the landscape of Wales in her twenties, and Eric Charles Ngalle, a Cameroonian poet and refugee, who made a life in Wales while unable to turn his mind to his original home, and the trauma that made him leave his family aged 17.

SUN 17:00 GCHQ: Minority Report (b0832fq3)
The domestic challenge facing Britain's biggest secret intelligence service. What's stopping members of the ethnic minorities from playing a key part in Britain's spy network: discrimination, loyalty or simple old-fashioned prejudice? DJ Nihal Arthanayake, Five Live and Asian Network presenter, gets rare access to GCHQ, the government's secret communication headquarters in Cheltenham Spa. He talks to staff from the black, Asian and ethnic minorities and hears from members of those communities outside about their attitude to the intelligence-gathering organisation. A report leaked to the Sunday Times six years ago suggested that black and Asian intelligence officers were concerned about there being a racist culture. If GCHQ's workforce was truly representative of Britain's ethnic makeup, then 12 per cent would be black, Asian or from other ethnic minorities, but it's not even a quarter of that. Can the organisation change?
Produced by Mark Savage.

SUN 17:40 Profile (b083j66z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]

SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b083l8mp)
The latest shipping forecast.

SUN 17:57 Weather (b083l8mr)
The latest weather forecast.

SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b083l8mt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b083l8mw)
John Waite

In this week's Pick of the Week John Waite shares some essential information: how to commandeer a wild camel if your taxi is sabotaged in the Rajastani desert; the Bard of weird Ivor Cutler has some pointers on how to keep upright on a falling down bridge - and the would be superstar of Sheffield John Shuttleworth helps us steer a steady course through a hardware store - with the aid of his trusty Yamaha keyboard. Handy hints, so don't leave home without them.

SUN 19:00 The Archers (b083m573)
Brian shares his vision, and Pip sticks up for Toby.

SUN 19:15 John Shuttleworth's Lounge Music (b083m575)
Series 2, Episode 2

John Shuttleworth invites celebrated pop stars to his Sheffield home to perform one of their own songs and also, more importantly, one of his.

This week it's Clare Grogan from Altered Images.

The timing of her visit couldn't be better as it's Doreen Melody's birthday and John is hoping that Clare will go along and sing Happy Birthday to Doreen - after all it's one of her biggest hits. But he's most disappointed when Clare starts singing the wrong tune!

Surprisingly, it's Ken Worthington who saves the day by offering to take Clare on a date, hoping that she'll become Ken's Girl rather than Gregory's!

John will have to console himself with top tips on the telephone from Nick Lowe, who he hopes will solve the problem of Dolby hiss.

Written and Performed by Graham Fellows with special guests Clare Grogan and Nick Lowe.
Produced by Dawn Ellis
A Chic Ken production for BBC Radio 4.

SUN 19:45 Annika Stranded (b083m577)
Series 3, Forty Words

Four new cases land on the desk of Detective Annika Strandhed, queen of the Oslo Police boat patrol.

Annika's neuroses - and she has a few - are mostly hidden by a boisterous manner and a love of speedboats. As fictional Scandinavian detectives go, she's not as astute as Saga Norén or Sarah Lund, but may be better company.

Although Mikel, her long-suffering forensic photographer, might disagree.

Episode 2: Forty Words
Annika and Mikel travel to Bergen to investigate a strange case involving a submarine.

Nick Walker is the author of two critically-acclaimed novels, Blackbox and Helloland. His plays and short stories have often featured on BBC Radio 4, including the First King of Mars stories (2007 - 2010) and the plays Life Coach (2010) and Stormchasers (2012). The first two series of Annika Stranded were broadcast in 2013 and 2014.

Writer: Nick Walker
Reader: Nicola Walker
Sound Design: Jon Calver
Producer: Jeremy Osborne

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.

SUN 20:00 More or Less (b08343jx)
Pensioners aren't poor anymore

High-rolling pensioners?
In Philip Hammond’s Autumn Statement he said that: “We will meet our pledge to our country’s pensioners through the triple lock.” This should ensure that the state pension continues to rise. However, are pensioners the ones struggling with stagnant incomes? We speak to the Institute for Fiscal Studies about who has a higher income – the retired or those working.

Predicting Norovirus outbreaks
The Food Standards Agency has been using Twitter to predict outbreaks of the ‘winter vomiting bug’. They want to warn the public as cases of Norovirus start to rise, rather than after they have seen a peak in lab reports. Dr Sian Thomas explains how social media can help.

Finding friends at a club
Have you ever been in a nightclub or festival and lost your friends? One PhD student has been modelling your options on finding them. Nathan Cunningham explains whether you should actively search for them, or stay put. We send out one of the team to try it out.

Air pollution deaths
Are 40,000 people dying a year in the UK from air pollution? Is breathing the air in London the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day? These are a couple of claims that have been in the news and shared online recently. We speak to Professor Anthony Frew from the Royal Sussex County Hospital about understanding the risks of air pollution.

Image: Pensioner playing the slot machines in a casino. Credit: John Moore/Getty

SUN 20:30 Last Word (b08343js)
Martin Aitchison, Sir Mota Singh QC, William Trevor, Ruth Gruber, David Mancuso

Kate Silverton on:

Martin Aitchison who worked with Barnes Wallis on the bouncing bomb but made his name illustrating the Peter and Jane ladybird books.

Sir Mota Singh, the Kenyan born Barrister who became Britain's first ethnic minority judge making headlines worldwide as the first judge in 300 years not to wear the horse hair wig

William Trevor - one of Ireland's greatest writers - a novelist, playwright and short story writer, his work was compared with Chekhov

Ruth Gruber, journalist, author, humanitarian and spy. She documented Stalin's gulags, life in Nazi Germany and the plight of Jewish refugees

and David Mancuso, dance music legend and music host who founded the Loft in New York.

Producer: Neil George.

SUN 21:00 Money Box (b083j4rp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]

SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b083m1vt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]

SUN 21:30 In Business (b0833vn6)
The Italian Banking Crisis

Why are Italy's banks in crisis and what's the impact on business? The country's banks have huge numbers of non-performing loans, the result of nearly a decade of recession. The economy has shrunk by nearly 10% in that time. Some small banks have already failed, others may follow. What has it been like to do business through these very lean times? Are banks continuing to lend? And what solutions might there be for one of Europe's biggest players? Ruth Sunderland visits small businesses, the backbone of the Italian economy, and asks what is required to strengthen the banking system.
Producer : Rosamund Jones.

SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b083l8my)
Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.

SUN 23:00 Letters from America (b086l0mr)
Omnibus

As the dust settles after America's most controversial election campaign, BBC Radio 4 asks five acclaimed writers to give their point of view on where America goes now.

What lasting impact will Donald Trump have on American politics? Is race an even more toxic issue after 8 years of a black President? And have we reached a point where the United States is too divided to govern?

MONDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2016

MON 00:00 Midnight News (b083l8pt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (b0832rjb)
Racial segregation, Dementia and hair care

Racial segregation in the United States: Laurie Taylor explores a provocative new study which sheds light on the racism which still endures today. Nicholas Guyatt, lecturer in American History at the University of Cambridge, asks why America's founding fathers failed to include Black and Native American people in their cherished ideals of equality. Kehinde Anderws, Associate Professor in Sociology at Birmingham City University, provides a Black British perspective.
Also, hairdressing for people with dementia. A new study by Sarah Campbell, Research Associate at the University of Manchester, discovered the importance of salon chat and human touch to women and men who struggled to recall the past.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.

MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b083m1vp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]

MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b083l8pw)
The latest shipping forecast.

MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b083l8py)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.

MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b083l8q0)
The latest shipping forecast.

MON 05:30 News Briefing (b083l8q2)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b084xxr0)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster, Anna Magnusson.

MON 05:45 Farming Today (b083l8q4)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Mark Smalley.

MON 05:56 Weather (b083l8q6)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.

MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03x4769)
Cetti's Warbler

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Bill Oddie presents the Cetti's warbler. Until the 1960s, Cetti's warblers were unknown in the UK but on the Continent they were common in marshy areas, especially dense scrub and the edge of reed-beds and ditches. They first bred in these habitats in south-east England in the early 1970s and by the end of the century their loud and sudden song-bursts were startling people from southern England and South Wales and northwards as far as Yorkshire.

MON 06:00 Today (b083l8q8)
News and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

MON 09:00 Start the Week (b083mrv5)
AIDS Activism and Surviving a Plague

On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe looks at what happens during a health epidemic and its aftermath.

The US activist Peter Staley was instrumental in forcing scientists and pharmaceutical companies to develop life-saving HIV/AIDs drugs. Thirty years later and with drugs now readily available, the concern is that the rate of new cases of HIV remains constant.

Professor Anne Johnson was involved in the biggest-ever-official investigation of Britain's sexual habits, which was vetoed at the time by Margaret Thatcher. She says continuing to understand people's attitudes and behaviour is vital to the nation's health.

More than eleven thousand people died during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. When the crisis hit its peak in 2014 there were no effective drugs and Professor Peter Horby was one of a team of scientists who conducted a drugs trial in the midst of the epidemic. He explains how what they discovered can be used for future health scares.

The author Louise Welsh is completing a trilogy of novels in which a killer disease has devastated the world. She explains why plague literature has proved so popular and enduring.

Producer: Katy Hickman

Photo: ACT UP activists at the International AIDS Conference in San Francisco, 1990 Credit: Rick Gerharter.

MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b083mrv7)
Reality Is Not What It Seems, Fiat Lux

Do space and time truly exist? What is reality made of? Can we understand its deep texture? Scientist Carlo Rovelli has spent his whole life exploring these questions and pushing the boundaries of what we know.

He describes how our understanding of reality has changed throughout the centuries, from the philosophers and scientists of antiquity to contemporary researchers into quantum gravity.

Episode 1: Fiat Lux
The foundations of 21st century science draw on concepts first introduced thousands of years ago by philosophers such as Anaximander and Democritus, whose ideas were given new life by scientists from the Enlightenment onwards.

Author: Carlo Rovelli
Reader: Mark Meadows
Abridger/Producer: Sara Davies

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.

MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b083l8qb)
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.

MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b083mrv9)
Gudrun's Saga, Episode 1

By Lucy Catherine

Gudrun, a young woman in 11th century Iceland, must forge her path through a world of unearthly beauty yet uncompromising harshness. A new re-telling of classic Icelanders' saga.

Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko

Gudrun's Saga is based on the famous Icelanders' saga known as The Laxdoela Saga. Written in the 13th century, it tells of people in the Breiðafjörður area of Iceland from the late 9th century to the early 11th century. The saga particularly focuses on a love triangle between Gudrun, Kjartan and Bolli. Kjartan and Bolli grow up together but the love they both have for Gudrun causes enmity between them and, in the end, their deaths. The Laxdæla saga remains popular and appreciated for its poetic beauty and pathetic sentiment. Since the saga has often been regarded as an unusually feminine saga, it has been speculated that it was composed by a woman.

Kate Phillips makes her radio debut as Gudrun. Previous roles include Jane Seymour in Wolf Hall, Linda in Peaky Blinders and Lise in War & Peace, all on BBC1.

Lucy Catherine has written extensively for BBC Radio Drama, including Friday Plays, Classic Serial adaptations and Woman's Hour series. Her 95' adaptation of THE MASTER AND MARGARITA by Mikhail Bulgakov was broadcast in early 2015 and won the BBC 'Best Audio Drama (Adapted); her 2 x 60' adaptation of Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN was broadcast in December 2012 as well as her half hour 'Gothic Horror' original LOOTED. Original 10 x 14' Woman's Hour drama series HALFWAY HERE and 2 x 45' Afternoon Drama in the series 'Riot Girls', SUSAN AND EMMA were broadcast in 2016. Other recent commissions for Radio 4 include BOY and GOING SOLO, adapted from Roald Dahl's autobiography; LIGHTS, CAMERA, KIDNAP! based on a true story about Kim Jong Il.

MON 11:00 The Untold (b083mrvc)
Coping Without Kira

Kira is an 18 year old Gloucester teenager who has just got her A level grades. The only girl from her school to be offered a place at Cambridge University, Kira is meant to be off to read history at the end of September.

But she is a carer for Rachel, her mum.

Rachel is bipolar, diabetic and arthritic. Virtually bedroom bound, she is heavily dependent upon Kira. Although hugely proud of her daughter, Rachel is not sure how she will cope if her daughter leaves.

Kira is keen for a new start. Perceived to be the poor kid at school, her teenage years were not particularly happy. And caring each evening for her mum, means parties, sleepovers and teenage freedoms have somewhat passed her by.

But Kira is consumed by worry and guilt.

Can she find a way to leave her mother and if she did, would she actually enjoy life as a Cambridge undergraduate?

Narrated by Grace Dent and produced by Sarah Bowen.

MON 11:30 Cooking in a Bedsitter (b083mrvf)
Beef Olives

Beattie Edmondson and Nikesh Patel star in Sue Teddern's new comedy, set in a 1960s' bedsitter, inspired by Katharine Whitehorn's cookery classic. In this episode, Trisha embarks on bedsit life, determined to make it as a get-ahead girl-about-town.

Directed by Emma Harding.

MON 12:00 News Summary (b083l8qd)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

MON 12:04 Witness (b083rbvb)
A Black GI in China

In November 1950 Clarence Adams, an African-American soldier fighting in the Korean War was captured by the Chinese Red Army. He was held prisoner until the war ended but then, instead of returning to the USA, Adams and 20 other GIs chose to settle in China. Rob Walker has been speaking to his daughter Della Adams about her father's life in Communist China.

MON 12:15 You and Yours (b083l8qg)
Ransomware, in-hospital injury lawyers and nursing home closures

We have the latest figures on how many criminals tap into people's computers and store what's called ransomware, which freezes your device until you pay for a password.

We ask if it's right for personal injury lawyers to be able to advertise in a hospital Emergency Department.

Our reporter Jon Douglas looks at why so many nursing homes seem to be closing.

Winifred Robinson visits Extra Energy, one of the new players in the energy market.

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON

PRODUCER: TARA HOLMES.

MON 12:57 Weather (b083l8qk)
The latest weather forecast.

MON 13:00 World at One (b083l8qm)
Analysis of news and current affairs.

MON 13:45 Self Drives: The Trabant (b083mrvh)
Go Trabi Go!

Will Self embarks on a 700 mile road trip in a Trabant, the iconic East German car.

Starting in London, Will plans to drive all the way to where the car was manufactured in Zwickau, Germany. Will's travelling companion - and the instigator of this strange road trip - is his childhood friend Mike Shamash, a person of restricted growth.

Mike's fascinated by all things East German and hopes that the Trabant will yield a more nuanced picture of life behind the Iron Curtain. Will remains unconvinced. The pair have barely left Broadcasting House before it dawns on them that 700 miles is a long way to drive in this flimsy, noisy and cramped car.

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

MON 14:00 The Archers (b083m573)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]

MON 14:15 Drama (b083n156)
Stone, Wishing Well

Second drama of the sixth series of Stone created by Danny Brocklehurst with Hugo Speer as DCI Stone.

In Wishing Well by Alex Ganley and Dan Allum, when a dead body is discovered on an abandoned traveller site DCI Stone and his team find themselves struggling to persuade anyone from the traveller community to speak up. As they delve deeper into the case they discover a complex culture with it's own laws and a startling new development in the case leads to heightened urgency.

Directed by Nadia Molinari.

MON 15:00 Round Britain Quiz (b083n158)
Programme 5, 2016

(5/12)
Chairman Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Brian Feeney and Polly Devlin of Northern Ireland, and Myfanwy Alexander and David Edwards playing for Wales. Both sides have already won one contest this season and will be on their mettle for another victory today.

The winners will be the pairing who need the least help from the chairman in unravelling the programme's trademark cryptic questions. Points will be deducted depending on the number of clues Tom has to provide to propel them towards the answers. As always, the programme contains a scattering of question suggestions from Round Britain Quiz listeners hoping their ingenuity can trip up the panel.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.

MON 15:30 Food Programme (b083m2zs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]

MON 16:00 Short Cuts (b083n15b)
Series 10, The Dreamers

Josie Long hears stories of dreamers - from the search for utopia to striving to transform into the writer Barbara Cartland.

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.

MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (b083n15d)
Zionism and Judaism

A new term of abuse has emerged on social media, Zio, a shortened form of Zionist. Meanwhile the evidence suggests that anti Semitism is on the rise in Britain. There have been high profile cases of politicians who have been disciplined for anti Semitic comments. There appears to be some confusion even within the Jewish community over what Zionism means, whether a distinction should be drawn between anti Semitism and anti Zionism and what the relationship is between Judaism and Zionism. Ernie Rea brings together three Jews to discuss these issues. Robert Cohen is a Jewish blogger and commentator on the British Jewish community and its relationship to the State of Israel: Dr Yaakov Wise is a Manchester based Orthodox Jewish historian and writer: and Jessica Elgot was formerly a journalist for the Jewish Chronicle and is now writing for the Guardian.

Producer: Rosie Dawson.

MON 17:00 PM (b083l8qp)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b083l8qr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b083n15g)
Series 66, Episode 3

The nation's favourite wireless entertainment pays a visit to the Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton. Old-timers Barry Cryer and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by Susan Calman and Richard Osman with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell provides piano accompaniment. Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Studios production.

MON 19:00 The Archers (b083n15k)
Lilian puts Justin in the picture, while Susan frets about her family photo shoot.

MON 19:15 Front Row (b083l8qt)
Arts news, interviews and reviews.

MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b083mrv9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]

MON 20:00 The Tarpaulin - A Biography (b083n15m)
Historian Dina Gusejnova tells the story of tarpaulin from 17th century mariners to today's refugee camps and those living on the periphery of society. In the process, Dina shines a light on statelessness, protest, heroism and transgression.

The tarpaulin is a fabric of conflict. Reinvented over its five hundred years of history, the material now has an important role in providing shelter to the millions of people who fall between the cracks of international geopolitics following periods of violence or natural disaster.

Dina hears stories of the internment in WW1 and then in WW2 on the Isle of Man where one internee, sociologist Norbert Elias, founded an impromptu university. A German Jew living in Britain, he - like many thousands of others - was classified as a civilian of 'enemy nationality' and a threat in wartime. Many internees were artists, writers or other intellectuals and, for Elias, his work as a scholar made internment bearable.

As a material, this ubiquitous water-resistant fabric is intimately connected to the economic and social history of the naval empires. Today, tarpaulins are made from plastics but, until the 20th century, they were made from flax canvas imported from Ireland and the Baltic, produced in Britain and coated in water-resistant tar. Tarpaulin also gave its name to sailors who slept on deck using the material to protect against the wind, rain and sea and it came to symbolise the possibility of rising through the ranks to become so-called 'Tarpaulin Commanders'.

Tarpaulin features in the works of writers such as Hermann Melville and Daniel Defoe and inspires filmmakers like Eisenstein who tells the story of mutiny in Battleship Potemkin, where the court-marshalled sailors face execution under tarpaulin - a key scene in cinematic history, it symbolises to many viewers the beginning of the Russian Revolution.

A Juniper production for BBC Radio 4.

MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (b0833sff)
Checkmate for the King of Chess?

The bizarre and extraordinary story of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the eccentric Russian tycoon and president of FIDE, the international chess governing body. His twenty years in office have been dogged by allegations of corruption and vote-rigging and he’s recently been banned from entering the United States by the US Treasury for his alleged involvement in assisting the Assad regime in Syria. It’s prevented him from presiding over this month’s World Chess Championships in New York. For Assignment Tim Whewell reports from Moscow and New York on the deeply politicised game of chess and asks if it’s finally checkmate for the king of chess.

Dina Newman producing.

Photo: Kirsan Ilyumzhinov with the letter from the US Treasury informing him why he had been placed under US sanctions.
Credit: K.Ilyumzhinov’s archive

MON 21:00 Natural Histories (b082ymp5)
Yew

Brett Westwood steps inside the trunk of an ancient Yew Tree in a Churchyard in Bennington with the writer and naturalist Richard Mabey. From their extraordinary vantage point the two men begin to unravel the history of our relationship with this most ancient and fascinating of trees. Over the centuries, Yews have inspired poets, writers, painters and topiarists who have shaped them into everything from peacocks to policemen's helmets. And with the help of writer and botanist Paul Evans, we discover the Yew is a tree unlike any other; a long-lived, regenerating, poisonous, evergreen, revered, medicinal rule breaker. Producer Sarah Blunt.

MON 21:30 Start the Week (b083mrv5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]

MON 21:58 Weather (b083l8qw)
The latest weather forecast.

MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b083l8qy)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.

MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b083n15p)
Nutshell, Episode 1

The first episode of Nutshell by the acclaimed author Ian McEwan and read by the actor Tim McInnerny.

Ian McEwan's latest novel updates the story of Hamlet to a townhouse in modern day London. As at Elsinore - betrayal and murder are rife. Trudy plans to poison her husband John and elope with her lover Claude. There is however a witness to the plot - Trudy's as yet unborn child.

'Bounded in the nutshell' of Trudy's womb, the foetus is forced to eavesdrop on his mother Ger(Trudy) and her lover, property-developer Claude, as they plan to murder his father, a hapless poet called John Cairncross. The ambitious but deeply banal Claude is of course brother to John and, consequently, villainous uncle to our unborn narrator. Claude and Trudy devise an elaborate facade involving anti-freeze and a great many props to cover their tracks and suggest that John's death was suicide.

As witness to all these goings-ons, the nine-month old resident of Trudy's womb keeps up a running commentary as he muses on his own future and decides how he can subvert their plan and avenge the murder. Nutshell's Denmark is an elegant Georgian terraced house in London St. John's Wood that has become shabby and dilapidated, but Claude has designs on it.

Tim McInnerny is known for his many roles on stage and screen appearing in films such Johnny English and TV such as Sherlock and the recent National Treasure. Early in his career he featured as Lord Percy Percy and Captain Darling in the Blackadder series.

Ian McEwan is a critically acclaimed author. His novels include The Child in Time, which won the 1987 Whitbread Novel of the Year, The Cement Garden, Enduring Love, Amsterdam which won the 1998 Booker Prize, Atonement, Saturday, On Chesil Beach, Solar and The Children Act.

MON 23:00 Marc Riley's Musical Time Machine (b05107zk)
Series 1, Frank Zappa and Lou Reed

The BBC's archive is justifiably and inarguably world-famous, but most of this attention and praise is showered on the riches contained within the Beeb's music archive - the life-changing Peel performances, seminal sessions from Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and David Bowie.

But these musical marvels risk over-shadowing another archive that's just as diverse, rich and rewarding - the BBC's spoken word, music archive.

As long as there have been pop stars, the BBC has spoken to them. Marc Riley and his trusty Time Machine - a rickety rust-bucket, back-firing jalopy - travel back through the years to visit the great and the good, the famous and the infamous, safely ensconced within the treasure trove of the BBC archive. Marc replays candid snapshots at crucial points in the careers of some of the biggest names in music.

In each episode, Marc lines up the Time Machine to travel to two different points in time and revisit two interviews with something in common - a person or place, a shared influence or ideology, a discovery, a misunderstanding.

In the second programme, interviews share a fierce rivalry. Both artists were intent on creating grown-up rock 'n roll, both pushed the boundaries of rock music. Both were anti-establishment, both were anti-hippy. Both were the kings of their exciting new scenes - one in New York, one in LA. Yet, despite the similarities and the common ground, each loathed the other. First there's Frank Zappa in conversation with Radio 1's Andy Batten-Foster from 1984, while the second interview comes from a 1992 interview by Johnnie Walker with Lou Reed.

Produced by Ian Callaghan
A Smooth Operations production for BBC Radio 4.

MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (b083n15r)
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.

TUESDAY 29 NOVEMBER 2016

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b083l8sk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b083mrv7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]

TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b083l8sm)
The latest shipping forecast.

TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b083l8sp)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.

TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b083l8sr)
The latest shipping forecast.

TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b083l8st)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b084yhvk)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster, Anna Magnusson.

TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b083l8sw)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03mzty6)
Black-Necked Grebe

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

David Attenborough presents the story of the Black-Necked Grebe. In winter the black-necked grebe is largely grey and white with a dark cap and eyes like rubies. You'll need to seek out Black headed grebes in their favourite spots which include large London reservoirs and shallow seas along the south coast.

TUE 06:00 Today (b084yhvm)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (b083n2jg)
Julia Higgins on Polymers

Plastic Bags and the DNA in our cells are both polymers, very long molecules ubiquitous in nature and in their synthetic form, in materials like polythene, perspex and polystyrene. Professor Dame Julia Higgins has spent a lifetime researching the structure and movement of polymeric material.
Trained as a physicist, Dame Julia was one of the early researchers in polymer science and throughout her career worked alongside chemists and engineers. No surprise then that she was the first woman to become both a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
In the 1960s with other young researchers she worked at the Harwell Atomic Energy Research Centre in Oxfordshire, one of the first people to use neutron scattering as a technique to investigate how polymer molecules move.
Emeritus Professor of Polymer Science and former Principal at the Faculty of Engineering at Imperial College, London, Professor Higgins tells Jim Al-Khalili how she used her influence as a leading academic to improve representation of women in top posts in science and medicine.

TUE 09:30 One to One (b083n2jj)
Miranda Rae on the challenges of being a single parent

Single mum, Miranda Rae meets father of three, Andy Hill, to explore the challenges of being a single dad. Producer Sarah Blunt.

TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b084999y)
Reality Is Not What It Seems, The Most Beautiful of Theories

Do space and time truly exist? What is reality made of? Can we understand its deep texture? Scientist Carlo Rovelli has spent his whole life exploring these questions and pushing the boundaries of what we know.

He describes how our understanding of reality has changed throughout the centuries, from the philosophers and scientists of antiquity to contemporary researchers into quantum gravity.

Episode 2: The Most Beautiful of Theories
In 1905, Albert Einstein published three papers which constructed the pillars of our modern understanding of the world and, in the process, formulated the most famous equation of modern science.

Author: Carlo Rovelli
Reader: Mark Meadows
Abridger/Producer: Sara Davies

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.

TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b083l8sy)
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.

TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b0844cp8)
Gudrun's Saga, Episode 2

By Lucy Catherine

Gudrun, a young woman in 11th century Iceland, must forge her path through a world of unearthly beauty yet uncompromising harshness. Modern re-telling of classic Icelanders' saga.

Married off to a much older man, Gudrun is now isolated in a remote part of the country. Will she fly or fight?

Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko.

TUE 11:00 The Listeners (b083n4sc)
Series 4, Episode 1

In the first of three immersive programmes, we discover there's far more to listening than hearing with American composer and founder of the Centre for Deep Listening, Pauline Oliveros and spiritual musician and contemplative Karen Markham. For as long as she can remember, listening has been an important part of Pauline's life having been brought up in a musical household where her mother and grandmother played duets on pianos in different rooms and the phrase 'deep listening' was born out of a trip below ground where she improvised with a group of musicians, inside a giant cistern! For composer Karen Markham, deep listening has been part of a spiritual path as she has embraced a full time contemplative life in which music has plays an integral role. Presenter Paul Evans, Producer Sarah Blunt.

TUE 11:30 Tales From the Stave (b083n4sf)
Series 14, Rossini's The Barber of Seville

Frances Fyfield is in Italy to launch a new run of her series exploring and celebrating the handwritten manuscripts of some of classical music's greatest hits. In a series that includes works by Vivaldi and Puccini she begins with one of the most popular staples of Opera Houses across the globe, Rossini's The Barber of Seville.

The manuscript is housed in the music museum of Bologna, the city where Rossini was brought up and trained. Written at break-neck speed, and facing comparison with another version of the story of Count Almaviva, his trusted accomplice Figaro and the subject of his passion, Rosina, The Barber of Seville has been in the repertoire since its stumbling debut two hundred years ago. Joining Frances is the Bass Baritone Simone Alberghini, the Rossini scholars Daniela Macchione and Stefano Castelvecchi and the museum curator Enrico Tabellini.

Such was the urgency of the writing that many of the numbers, not least Figaro's famous opening aria 'Largo Al Factotum', are clearly composed into the score without any preliminary sketches. Busy corrections and hasty orchestration reflect both the energy of the music and the urgency of the composer. He didn't have time for the recitatives which were completed, for the most part, by a collaborator and if a rethink was required ink smudges and scratching of the paper suggest they were done straight away. As with the Opera itself the team find the energy fizzes and bubbles off the page and there are plenty of surprises for the singer Simone who discovers that age-old Figaro performing traditions have nothing to do with what Rossini wrote in the score.

Producer: Tom Alban.

TUE 12:00 News Summary (b083l8t0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

TUE 12:04 Witness (b083rbxf)
The Imprisonment of Irina Ratushinskaya

In October 1986 the dissident poet, Irina Ratushinskaya, was released from a Soviet prison camp on the eve of a US-Soviet nuclear summit. She has been speaking to Louise Hidalgo about her imprisonment, her poetry, and the day she was set free.

TUE 12:15 You and Yours (b083l8t2)
Call You and Yours

Consumer phone-in.

TUE 12:57 Weather (b083l8t4)
The latest weather forecast.

TUE 13:00 World at One (b083l8t6)
Analysis of news and current affairs.

TUE 13:45 Self Drives: The Trabant (b083n4sh)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Trabi

Will Self continues his 700 mile road trip in a Trabant, the iconic East German car.

Having started out in London, Will and his childhood friend Mike plan to drive all the way to where the car was manufactured in Zwickau, Germany.

Just outside Brussels, Will and Mike meet a Belgian Trabi enthusiast who was asked spy for East Germany. And over dinner in Bonn, the pair argue about whether it's feasible to take a more positive view of life in the former GDR.

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

TUE 14:00 The Archers (b083n15k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]

TUE 14:15 Drama (b083n6zf)
The Princes and Princesses of Wales

By Simon Crowther.

It's the hottest day of the year, and the day that Loretta and Leighton, neighbours since childhood, finally grow up. When the peace of their shared Cardiff yard is disturbed by new neighbours from the Welsh-Welsh North of Wales, two families must come to terms with their own attitudes. In the heat, tempers fray and a stray hound takes on a legendary significance.

Showcasing some of the best new Welsh music, from artists Sweet Baboo, H Hawkline and 9Bach, with original music composed by Lisa Jên Brown and performed by Huw Evans

Sound by Nigel Lewis
Directed by Janine H. Jones
A BBC Cymru Wales Production.

TUE 15:00 Life at LIPA (b083n81k)
The Big Performance

Raising the curtain on a very modern performing arts school, the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.

In this three-part series, Janice Long follows students during the final year of their degree, through graduation and out into the world as they try to enter the performing arts industry.

Singer-songwriter Katya, dancer Danielle and DJ Dan who is studying entertainment management are hardworking, dedicated students. They are determined to be at the forefront of the performance industries in a few short years. But first they have to hone their craft.

Katya is writing songs for her big final year show and Danielle has been cast to represent LIPA at a national dance convention. Dan has been DJ-ing and working in a radio station. As they prepare for final assignments and performances, they share the ups and downs of their final year as artists-in-training and their hopes for the future.

The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts was set up by Sir Paul McCartney and BRIT school founder Mark Featherstone-Witty just over twenty years ago. Sir Paul was worried about what they would offer - as he says, "you can't teach them to be John Lennon". As well as performance skills, LIPA claims to teach students the business side of one of the most competitive of industries.

With exclusive and close-up access to life at LIPA, we meet those who want to become arts practitioners of the future and those who are helping to get them there.

Producer: David James
Executive Producer: Rebecca Maxted
A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4.

TUE 15:30 Shared Experience (b083n94f)
Series 6, Twins

The Wonderful World of Identical Twins: A new series of Shared Experience delves into the lives of twins, the pros and cons of having someone who looks and acts just like you. Twins Gillian and Tracy, and one half of twin sisters, Jasmine share their stories with Fi Glover, from instinctively knowing when the other is in danger, to managing occasional envy and jealousy.

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

TUE 16:00 Bursting the Social Network Bubble (b083p4lw)
Bobby Friction has started to realise that his day-to-day online activities are not only being monitored but in some senses manipulated. How often he interacts with specific friends, pages or sites sculpts and filters everything and everyone he comes into contact with online. But when, like Bobby, you decide you've had enough of living in a social media bubble, what can you do to change things? Is it possible for an ordinary person a user of social media to beat the system or is it only technology nerds who can do it? And really - is there any benefit to breaking out of the bubble?

Producer: Perminder Khatkar.

TUE 16:30 A Good Read (b083p887)
John Bird and John Timpson

Big Issue founder John Bird and businessman John Timpson talk favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Up for discussion: Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge, The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them by Elif Batuman and thriller The Confidential Agent by Graham Greene. Who could predict that both guests found inspiration in Hardy's 19th century novel? Timpson as a businessman employing people who have been in in prison, John Bird when he was in a reformatory himself...and who had an affair with a much older Russian woman after she found him reading Dostoyevsky in an art gallery?
Producer Sally Heaven.

TUE 17:00 PM (b083l8t8)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b083l8tb)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

TUE 18:30 Clare in the Community (b083p889)
Series 11, Unfaithful

Episode 3 - Unfaithful

Brian's been going through Clare's emails and made an upsetting discovery. He's insisted on a couple's therapy session although Clare isn't taking proceedings entirely seriously.

Sally Phillips is Clare Barker the social worker who has all the right jargon but never a practical solution.

A control freak, Clare likes nothing better than interfering in other people's lives on both a professional and personal basis. Clare is in her thirties, white, middle class and heterosexual, all of which are occasional causes of discomfort to her.

Each week we join Clare in her continued struggle to control both her professional and private life In today's Big Society there are plenty of challenges out there for an involved, caring social worker. Or even Clare.

Written by Harry Venning and David Ramsden
Producer Alexandra Smith

A BBC Studios production.

TUE 19:00 The Archers (b083p88c)
Ruth fires a warning shot, and it's a big day for the Carters.

TUE 19:15 Front Row (b083l8td)
Arts news, interviews and reviews.

TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b0844cp8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]

TUE 20:00 The Green Book (b083p88f)
In the Jim Crow era of racial segregation, travelling in the United States was fraught with difficulties if you were black. At best it was inconvenient, as white-owned businesses refused to serve African American motorists, repair their cars or offer them hotel accommodation. At worst, travel could be life-threatening if you walked into the wrong bar in the wrong town.

That's why in 1936 Victor H Green, a Harlem postal worker, published the first edition of The Green Book. The guide listed hotels, restaurants, bars and service stations which would serve African Americans and was an attempt, in Victor Green's words, "to give the Negro traveller information that will keep from him running into difficulties and embarrassments". 'Embarrassments' seems rather a tame word for the outright hostility and physical danger which many black travellers experienced in segregation-era America. The Green Book became a catalogue of refuge and tolerance in a hostile and intolerant world.

Alvin Hall hits the highway, Green Book in hand, to document a little-known aspect of racial segregation: the challenges - for mid-20th century America's new black middle class - of travelling in their own country. Alvin's journey starts in Tallahassee, Florida, where he was born and raised, takes him through Alabama and Tennessee and concludes in Ferguson, Missouri.

The guide ceased publication soon after the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. But, as Alvin discovers in Ferguson, many African Americans still feel far from safe as they drive. Alvin asks whether the Green Book ceased publication too soon.

Interviewees: Carolyn Bailey-Champion, Dr. Charles Champion, Leah Dickerman, Jerome Gray, Prof. Allyson Hobbs, Ryan Jones, Maira Liriano, Ron McCoy, Robert Moman, Dr. Gwen Patton, Calvin Ramsey, Tiffany Shawn, Rev. Henry Steele, Bryan Stevenson and Rev. Starsky Wilson

Producer: Jeremy Grange

Archive audio courtesy of PBS, CBS and CNN

Photos: Jonathan Calm.

TUE 20:40 In Touch (b083l8tg)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.

TUE 21:00 All in the Mind (b083p88h)
Claudia Hammond presents a series that explores the limits and potential of the human mind.

TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (b083n2jg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]

TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b083l8tj)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.

TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b083p88k)
Nutshell, Episode 2

Second episode of Nutshell by the acclaimed author Ian McEwan and read by the actor Tim McInnerny.

Ian McEwan's latest novel is a modern-day reworking of Hamlet told from the unusual perspective of an unborn child. 'Bounded in the nutshell' of Trudy's womb, the foetus is witness to a plot. Unable to escape the confines of the uterus, he is forced to listen on his mother Ger(Trudy) and her lover Claude as they plan to murder his father, a hapless poet called John Cairncross. The ambitious but deeply banal Claude is of course brother to John and so villainous uncle to the unborn narrator. As witness to all these goings-ons, the nine-month old resident of Trudy's womb keeps up a running commentary that is both tragic and hugely entertaining, as he muses on his own future and becomes determined to subvert their plan and avenge the murder. Nutshell's Denmark is an elegant Georgian terraced house in London St. John's Wood that has become shabby and dilapidated, but the property developing uncle Claude has designs on it.

Today Claude visits John and goes shopping for poison.

Tim McInnerny is known for his many roles on television and stage appearing in films such Johnny English and TV such as Sherlock and the recent National Treasure. Early in his career he featured as Lord Percy Percy and Captain Darling in the Blackadder series.

Ian McEwan is a critically acclaimed author of short stories and novels for adults. His novels include The Child in Time, which won the 1987 Whitbread Novel of the Year, The Cement Garden, Enduring Love, Amsterdam which won the 1998 Booker Prize, Atonement, Saturday, On Chesil Beach, Solar, Sweet Tooth and The Children Act.

TUE 23:00 Alexei Sayle's Imaginary Sandwich Bar (b083p88m)
Careerism

The Godfather of Alternative Comedy delivers a mixture of stand-up, memoir and philosophy from behind the counter of his Imaginary Sandwich Bar.

Episode 3 - Careerism

Alexei reveals the surprising reason he disappeared from our TV screens in the 1990's, recounts a chance meeting with Ed Miliband, discusses rampant nepotism in most coveted careers and draws a striking comparisons between capitalism and all you can eat buffets.

Written and performed by Alexei Sayle
Additional Material from Liam Beirne
Produced by Joe Nunnery
A BBC Studios Production.

TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (b083p88p)
Sean Curran reports from Westminster.

WEDNESDAY 30 NOVEMBER 2016

WED 00:00 Midnight News (b083l8wj)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b084999y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]

WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b083l8wl)
The latest shipping forecast.

WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b083l8wn)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.

WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b083l8wq)
The latest shipping forecast.

WED 05:30 News Briefing (b083l8ws)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b084yj1t)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster, Anna Magnusson.

WED 05:45 Farming Today (b083l8wv)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Mark Smalley.

WED 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.

WED 06:00 Today (b083p8xw)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

WED 09:00 Midweek (b083pch4)
Lively and diverse conversation with Libby Purves and guests.

WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b08499xq)
Reality Is Not What It Seems, The Quantum Leap

Do space and time truly exist? What is reality made of? Can we understand its deep texture? Scientist Carlo Rovelli has spent his whole life exploring these questions and pushing the boundaries of what we know.

He describes how our understanding of reality has changed throughout the centuries, from the philosophers and scientists of antiquity to contemporary researchers into quantum gravity.

Episode 3: The Quantum Leap
Twentieth century discoveries in the fields of quantum science provide the basis for our contemporary understanding of the nature of the world - but also pose questions about the very fabric of reality.

Author: Carlo Rovelli
Reader: Mark Meadows
Abridger/Producer: Sara Davies

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.

WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b083l8wx)
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.

WED 10:41 15 Minute Drama (b0844sl1)
Gudrun's Saga, Episode 3

By Lucy Catherine

Gudrun, a young woman in 11th century Iceland, must forge her path through a world of unearthly beauty yet uncompromising harshness. Modern re-telling of classic Icelanders' saga.

Love is rekindled when Gudrun is visited by old friends.

Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko.

WED 10:55 The Listening Project (b083pch8)
Elspeth and Sue - Period Pains

Fi Glover with a conversation between a mother and daughter reminiscing about the explanations demanded regarding the daughter's early-onset periods and their life without a TV. 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 Tarpaulin - A Biography (b083n15m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Monday]

WED 11:30 Gloomsbury (b05zlg6p)
Series 3, Tired of London

Henry finally gives up his job at the Foreign Office and embarks on a career as a writer. He lands a job as London Diary writer for the Evening Standard, a publication loathed by Vera because it maligned her when reporting on her elopement with Venus.

But Henry has writer's block and can't think of a single thing to write. He asks Vera to do it for him. She refuses, but does offer to accompany him up to London to see Ginny and Lionel Fox in the hope that something on the trip will inspire him.

Lionel and Ginny are having their own problems - Ginny feels trapped by the city and wants to escape to the country. Lionel suggests to Henry that they go to London Zoo as this has always been a source of inspiration to him. There, Ginny reflects on how the animals in their cages resemble the way she feels about her current situation and, when Henry pounces on the idea as a splendid subject for his article in the Evening Standard, Ginny throws a fit. She accuses him of plagiarism and storms out.

Vera and Henry are sitting in the cafe alone when the Prince of Wales happens to turn up with one of his mistresses and starts to flirt with Vera. Jealousy inspires Henry, but it takes Vera to save his reputation as a fledgling writer.

Produced by Jamie Rix
A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4.

WED 12:00 News Summary (b083l8wz)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

WED 12:04 Witness (b083rdmd)
The US School Bible Controversy

In November 1956 a protest by an American schoolboy challenged the requirement for daily Bible reading in many US schools. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court and eventually thousands of schools in the USA had to change their teaching practices. The schoolboy's name was Ellery Schempp and he has spoken to Claire Bowes for Witness.

WED 12:15 You and Yours (b083l8x1)
Consumer affairs programme.

WED 12:57 Weather (b083l8x3)
The latest weather forecast.

WED 13:00 World at One (b083l8x5)
Analysis of news and current affairs.

WED 13:45 Self Drives: The Trabant (b083pchb)
Achtung Bitte!

Will makes it to the former East German border in his iconic communist car. But he starts to worry about the safety of the vehicle and wonders whether it's time to call the journey off.

Having started out in London, Will and his childhood friend Mike had planned to drive 700 miles all the way to where the car was manufactured in Zwickau, Germany.

On the former border, they meet a teacher who grew up in the GDR and has fond memories of the Trabant.

But it's becoming clear just how flimsy the plastic-bodied car is. Over dinner in Eisenach, Will and Mike discuss the wisdom of continuing the trip.

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

WED 14:00 The Archers (b083p88c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]

WED 14:15 Drama (b083pchd)
Road to Oxford

David is the first of his family to go to university. The young student goes up to Oxford full of hope and with his parents bursting with pride, but finds that it's not all plain sailing. Matters come to a crisis during the chaotic festivities of May Day.

The latest in the long line of Road plays created by writer Douglas Livingstone and director Jane Morgan. The plays in this long running, occasional series are based on extensive original recordings of festivals from all round the world.

Road to Oxford is set at the celebration of the dawn on May 1st, when the choristers sing from the top of Magdalen tower and the students shiver in their evening clothes at the base - after a night of partying. The production team went to Oxford to record the overnight festivities and shivered with the rest of them, town and gown, but managed to avoid the temptation of a warming nip of alcohol - a temptation which quite a few other people succumbed to.

A number of the actors are making their radio debuts and are graduates of the Oxford School of Drama or from The University of Oxford itself. Students advised on the setting for the recordings and storylines have been suggested by a number of Oxford graduates, who contributed their thoughts on their time in the city of dreaming spires.

Written by Douglas Livingstone
Directed by Jane Morgan
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4.

WED 15:00 Money Box (b083l8x7)
Money Box Live

Financial phone-in.

WED 15:30 All in the Mind (b083p88h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]

WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b083pchg)
Sociological discussion programme, presented by Laurie Taylor.

WED 16:30 The Media Show (b083l8x9)
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world.

WED 17:00 PM (b083l8xc)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b083l8xf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

WED 18:30 Women Talking About Cars (b083pchj)
Dawn French

Victoria Coren Mitchell interviews Dawn French in the first of a new series in which famous women look at their lives from the perspective of the cars they have known, the journeys they've been on and the things they keep in their boot for emergencies.
Hear what Dawn wrote on the back of her first car; find out which comedian totalled her beloved Cortina; and discover the advantages of the refrigerated glove compartment.
Car descriptions read by Josette Simon.
A BBC Studios production.

WED 19:00 The Archers (b083pcqr)
Lynda has some reluctant players, and Toby sweetens the deal.

WED 19:15 Front Row (b083l8xh)
Arts news, interviews and reviews.

WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b0844sl1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:41 today]

WED 20:00 We Need to Talk About Death (b083pd1p)
Stand By Me

Mortality is often on Joan Bakewell's mind. She's in her eighties, many of her friends have died and older relatives went long ago. She's seen others die and doesn't find it frightening.

Given that death and dying are just part of the stream of human existence, she's baffled that so many of us shy away from the subject. Particularly given that many of us don't die 'well'.

While the UK ranks as one of the best places to die in the world, thanks to palliative care and the hospice movement, this obscures many worrying realities. Most people say they want to die at home but many don't achieve it, with half of us dying on an often busy hospital ward. Furthermore, painkillers like morphine are often prescribed too late and in too low a dose.

In this series, Joan Bakewell and her panel talk openly about what happens in Britain today when we die. She explores the choices open to us and confronts the very questions about death and dying that we fear the most.

In this opening programme, Joan considers what we can all do to take control of our own deaths. She explores a growing social movement in palliative care which encourages people to stand beside the dying to ensure they have a say in how and where they die.

Producer: Beth Eastwood

Some clips: Courtesy of Healthtalk.

WED 20:45 Four Thought (b083pd1r)
Magazine Renaissance

Jeremy Leslie explains why reports of magazines dying have been greatly exaggerated.

Jeremy has spent years working in the print magazine industry, and runs the shop and website magCulture. But in recent years, as much commentary has focused on the rise of online and the accompanying death of print, Jeremy has instead seen a series of small, new and often niche print titles opening, and thriving. But why, and will it continue?

Producer: Giles Edwards.

WED 21:00 Science Stories (b083pdvb)
Series 4, The Day the Earth Stopped Standing Still

Prior to 1543 it was generally believed that the earth lay static in the centre of the universe, while the Sun, moon, planets and stars revolved around it in various complex paths, some even looping back and forth, as described by the Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy over a millennium before. This Ptolemaic system sat comfortably reconciled with philosophy and biblical scripture, not to mention immediate experience and observations.

In the 16th century astronomy and astrology were closely intertwined, as the art of predicting where the small dots of light on the night sky would appear had consequences if you were the sort of person who based your actions on horoscopes. But astronomers didn't have the right to start telling philosophers and theologians how the universe was actually constructed - what its mechanisms were - they merely observed the moving dots of light and used mathematics to predict where they would be the next night, week or month. This was an essential function for the Catholic church too - as the all-important date of Easter is based around a complicated lunar pattern.

But also at that time in northern Europe, Martin Luther and others had begun a protestant revolution, fundamentally questioning the authority of the Pope and Vatican.

It was an auspicious time for a fairly middle ranking Catholic cleric, Nicolaus Copernicus, working in a remote corner of northern Poland to drop a note around telling other astronomers that he'd worked out a new system that made for better astronomical calculations by making the moon travel round a spinning earth, and the earth and all the planets travel around the Sun.

If that were the true shape of the universe, the bible could no longer be literally true.

It took 30 years, but eventually a keen young Austrian mathematician convinced him to publish his book.

So a German radical protestant published a book by a mild-mannered Polish Catholic cleric, a book that allegedly simplified the cosmos, rightfully placing the Sun at the centre of our local universe, kicking off the scientific revolution and leading to the European enlightenment.

But as Phil Ball explains, the real story of 'De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium' - 'On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres' - is not quite as straight forward as all that.

WED 21:30 Midweek (b083pch4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]

WED 21:58 Weather (b083l8xk)
The latest weather forecast.

WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b083l8xm)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.

WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b083pdvd)
Nutshell, Episode 3

Third episode of Nutshell by the acclaimed author Ian McEwan and read by the actor Tim McInnerny.

Ian McEwan's latest novel is a modern-day riff on Hamlet told from the unusual perspective of an unborn child. 'Bounded in the nutshell' of Trudy's womb, the foetus is witness to a plot. Unable to escape the confines of the uterus, he is forced to listen on his mother Ger(Trudy) and her lover Claude as they plan to murder his father, a hapless poet called John Cairncross. The ambitious but deeply banal Claude is of course brother to John and so villainous uncle to the unborn narrator. As witness to all these goings-ons, the nine-month old resident of Trudy's womb keeps up a running commentary that is both tragic and hugely entertaining, as he muses on his own future and becomes determined to subvert their plan and avenge the murder. Nutshell's Denmark is an elegant Georgian terraced house in London St. John's Wood that has become shabby and dilapidated, but the property developing uncle Claude has designs on it. It's a classic tale of murder and deceit told with tremendous wit and clever wordplay and is a brilliant update of the Shakespearean original.

Tim McInnerny is known for his many roles on television and stage appearing in films such Johnny English and TV such as Sherlock and the recent National Treasure. Early in his career he featured as Lord Percy Percy and Captain Darling in the Blackadder series.

Ian McEwan is a critically acclaimed author of short stories and novels for adults. His novels include The Child in Time, which won the 1987 Whitbread Novel of the Year, The Cement Garden, Enduring Love, Amsterdam which won the 1998 Booker Prize, Atonement, Saturday, On Chesil Beach, Solar, Sweet Tooth and The Children Act.

WED 23:00 Terry Alderton: More Crazy Now (b083pfmr)
The Dirty Smile

Terry Alderton flexes his comedy muscles in this comedy and musical explosion. Street Kid, Victor, Ed and The Bear return along with some new, unexplainable characters and voices.

It's more Terry, more crazy and happening right now. No Geordies were offended in the making of this programme.

Written by and starring Terry Alderton
Featuring Johnny Spurling
Additional material from Johnny Spurling and Richard Melvin
Produced by Johnny Spurling and Sean Kerwin
Executive Producer: Richard Melvin
A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4.

WED 23:15 Jigsaw (b04gw8cg)
Series 2, Episode 4

Award-winning stand-up comedians Dan Antopolski, Tom Craine and Nat Luurtsema combine their talents to piece together a rapid-fire and surreal sketch show.

Produced by Colin Anderson.

WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (b083pf66)
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.

THURSDAY 01 DECEMBER 2016

THU 00:00 Midnight News (b083l8zd)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b08499xq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]

THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b083l8zg)
The latest shipping forecast.

THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b083l8zj)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.

THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b083l8zl)
The latest shipping forecast.

THU 05:30 News Briefing (b083l8zn)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b084yth9)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster, Anna Magnusson.

THU 05:45 Farming Today (b083l8zq)
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 (b0423ctf)
Reed Bunting

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

David Attenborough presents the story of the reed bunting. The reed bunting makes up for its lack of musicality with striking good looks. Male birds have jet black heads and a white moustache and look stunning on a spring day as they sit on shrubs or sway on reed stems, flicking their tales nervously and chanting a simple refrain.

THU 06:00 Today (b083qx9g)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

THU 09:00 In Our Time (b083qx9j)
Listener Week

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of over 750 different ideas suggested by listeners in October, for the yearly Listener Week. Previous topics: Kafka's The Trial and The Voyages of Capt Cook. We'll reveal the topic on 1st December in Melvyn's trail on the Today programme.

THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b0849c3s)
Reality Is Not What It Seems, The Dances of Time

Do space and time truly exist? What is reality made of? Can we understand its deep texture? Scientist Carlo Rovelli has spent his whole life exploring these questions and pushing the boundaries of what we know.

He describes how our understanding of reality has changed throughout the centuries, from the philosophers and scientists of antiquity to contemporary researchers into quantum gravity.

Episode 4: The Dances of Time
As the very notions of space and time are called into question, scientists are exploring theories of quantum gravity in order to find answers to some of the great mysteries about the structure of the physical world.

Author: Carlo Rovelli
Reader: Mark Meadows
Abridger/Producer: Sara Davies

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.

THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b083l8zs)
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.

THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b0844tfg)
Gudrun's Saga, Episode 4

By Lucy Catherine

Gudrun, a young woman in 11th century Iceland, must forge her path through a world of unearthly beauty yet uncompromising harshness. Modern re-telling of classic Icelanders' saga.

Now twice a widow, Gudrun is under threat when her uncles begin to eye her large estate. A husband would ward them off.

Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko.

THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b083qxbx)
Albania's Cannabis Boom

Albania has become the largest producer of outdoor-grown cannabis in Europe. This illicit industry - overseen by organised crime groups - began in the late 1990s and has spread across this small, Balkan nation. Most of this 'green gold' is trafficked out, with whole villages depending on the money it makes. The Albanian government is attempting to contain the industry by eradicating millions of plants, and seizing industrial-sized quantities that are dried and prepared for market in secret locations. With producer Albana Kasapi, Linda Pressly investigates Albania's cannabis boom.

THU 11:30 The Art of Australia (b083qxpb)
Episode 1

In a major new three part series, academic Corin Throsby returns to her native Australia to explore the rich cultural life of this vast nation we think we know so well, but which in fact belies many of our misconceptions. She describes how the dominant stereotypes of the country formed by soaps like Neighbours and Home and Away, as well as movies like Crocodile Dundee, bear little resemblance to the real life of Australia and the culture being created there. This is a country that's highly multi-cultural and increasingly keen to dwell on its own stories rather than forever hark back to its colonial parent, and home to a great swathe of major figures in the international arts scene; it is also, though, a place wrestling with issues around race and sexuality, where ingrained prejudice against immigrants and indigenous communities still acts both as a brake and an inspiration for many of its most powerful cultural voices, and where the mainstream domestic media continues to present a very white, mono-cultural face.
In the first episode, Corin hears from the likes of Baz Luhrmann, Geoffrey Rush, Courtney Barnett, Christos Tsiolkas and Richard Flanagan, as well as Maya Newell, the director of the documentary'Gayby Baby' that was banned in schools for supposedly promoting same-sex families.
PRODUCER: Geoff Bird.

THU 12:00 News Summary (b083l8zv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

THU 12:04 Witness (b083rfsr)
The Capture of Abimael Guzman

In September 1992 security forces in Peru tracked down and arrested the country's most wanted criminal, the leader of the Maoist rebel group, Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path. After months staking out a safe house in a quiet residential neighbourhood of the capital, Lima, police seized the 58-year-old Guzman, who was found hiding in an upstairs room. Mike Lanchin has been hearing from the two officers who caught the elusive rebel leader.

THU 12:15 You and Yours (b083l8zx)
Consumer affairs programme.

THU 12:57 Weather (b083l8zz)
The latest weather forecast.

THU 13:00 World at One (b083l901)
Analysis of news and current affairs.

THU 13:45 Self Drives: The Trabant (b083r1jb)
Gearbox Blues

Will runs into mechanical difficulties with his iconic communist car.

Having resolved to continue his 700 miles journey to where the car was manufactured, Will's vehicle develops a gearbox problem on the motorway. Will and his travelling companion Mike hope that a friendly Trabant enthusiast might be able to save the day.

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

THU 14:00 The Archers (b083pcqr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]

THU 14:15 Afternoon Drama (b01gg8hl)
Red and Blue, Terror

By Philip Palmer

Military consultant Bradley Shoreham has been invited to discuss possible war game scenarios involving new terror attacks on London. But just how hypothetical is this consultation?

Bradley Shoreham . . . . . Tim Woodward
Brigadier Fraser . . . . . Bill Paterson
The Waiter . . . . . James Lailey
Defence Secretary . . . . . Christine Absalom
Head of Intelligence . . . . . Peter Hamilton Dyer

Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko.

THU 15:00 Open Country (b083r1jd)
Belvoir Castle and its 'Capability' Brown Landscape

Helen Mark is in Leicestershire, to discover how the 'Capability' Brown plans for Belvoir castle have finally come to fruition.
Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, regarded as one of the greatest landscape architects, laid out his vision for how the landscape around this ancestral home should look, back in the 18th century. Some work was undertaken, but then a fire destroyed Belvoir castle. It was assumed all the Brown maps were lost too and plans for restoring the landscape were forgotten. However, the current Duchess of Rutland, Emma Manners and her team found the lost 'Capability' Brown plans. They have just finished restoring the landscape around Belvoir Castle, now a completed 'Capability' Brown garden, just in time to mark the 300th anniversary of his birth.
The producer is Perminder Khatkar.

THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b083m1vt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]

THU 15:30 Open Book (b083m305)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]

THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b083r1jg)
Blue Velvet

Francine Stock revisits the manicured lawns and gothic horror of Blue Velvet as David Lynch's surreal masterpiece celebrates its thirtieth anniversary.

THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b083l903)
Adam Rutherford explores the science that is changing our world.

THU 17:00 PM (b083l905)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b083l907)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

THU 18:30 The Fair Intellectual Club (b083r1jj)
An Engagement with Mr Hogarth

Public and private morality come under the spotlight in the latest episode of Lucy Porter's 18th Century sitcom. A young painter named William Hogarth (Gus Brown) has been employed to paint Edinburgh Society beauty Ishbel (Caroline Deyga). Science whizz Alison (Jess Hardwick) is making potions for her brother Robert (Simon Donaldson). Hogarth finds inspiration but Alison faces ruin unless Marjory (Samara Maclaren) and Kennedy (Gordon Kennedy) can save the day.

With music by Aly Macrae
Director: Marilyn Imrie
Producer: Gordon Kennedy
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4.

THU 19:00 The Archers (b083r1jl)
Elizabeth turns down an offer, and Jolene makes a suggestion.

THU 19:15 Front Row (b083l909)
Arts news, interviews and reviews.

THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b0844tfg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]

THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (b083r1jn)
Series looking at important issues in the news. Presented by David Aaronovitch.

THU 20:30 In Business (b083r1jq)
Estonia's e-residents

Estonia is one of the smallest countries in Europe, with only 1.3 million citizens. But it is hoping to become much bigger - by attracting what it calls e-residents.

A scheme was started two years ago to give citizens of any nation the opportunity to set up Estonian bank accounts and businesses - and to develop a digital identity which can be managed from anywhere.

Ruth Alexander examines how it works, who benefits and why some UK citizens are seeing it as a post-Brexit business opportunity.

Producer: Elizabeth Cassin

(Image: Stanislav Yurin, an e-resident of Estonia, and his wife Kseniya Paliadnik).

THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b083l903)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]

THU 21:30 In Our Time (b083qx9j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]

THU 21:58 Weather (b083l90c)
The latest weather forecast.

THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b083l90f)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.

THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b083r1js)
Nutshell, Episode 4

The first episode of Nutshell by the acclaimed author Ian McEwan and read by the actor Tim McInnerny.

Ian McEwan's latest novel is a modern-day riff on Hamlet told from the unusual perspective of an unborn child who eavesdrops on his mother and property developer uncle as they plot the murder of his father.

'Bounded in the nutshell' of Trudy's womb, the foetus is witness to a plot. Unable to escape the confines of the uterus, he is forced to eavesdrop on his mother Ger(Trudy) and her lover, property-developer Claude, as they plan to murder his father, a hapless poet called John Cairncross. The ambitious but deeply banal Claude is of course brother to John and, consequently, villainous uncle to the unborn narrator. Claude and Trudy devise an elaborate facade involving anti-freeze and a great many props to cover their tracks and suggest that John's death was actually suicide. As witness to all these goings-ons, the nine-month old resident of Trudy's womb keeps up a running commentary that is both tragic and wryly entertaining, as he muses on his own future and becomes determined to subvert their plan and avenge the murder. Nutshell's Denmark is an elegant Georgian terraced house in London St. John's Wood that has become shabby and dilapidated, but Claude has designs on it.

It's a classic tale of murder and deceit told with tremendous wit and clever wordplay and is a brilliant re-working of the Shakespearean original.

Tim McInnerny is known for his many roles on television and stage appearing in films such Johnny English and TV such as Sherlock and the recent National Treasure. Early in his career he featured as Lord Percy Percy and Captain Darling in the Blackadder series.

Ian McEwan is a critically acclaimed author of short stories and novels for adults. His novels include The Child in Time, which won the 1987 Whitbread Novel of the Year, The Cement Garden, Enduring Love, Amsterdam which won the 1998 Booker Prize, Atonement, Saturday, On Chesil Beach, Solar, Sweet Tooth and The Children Act.

THU 23:00 Thom Tuck Goes Straight to DVD (b01rvppv)
The Olsens

In his debut solo Radio 4 show, comedian Thom Tuck recounted heart-rending tales of loves lost while drawing comparisons with 54 Straight-to-DVD Disney movies he'd watched, so we don't ever have to.

Thom now turns his attention to other genres of Straight-to-DVD movies - seeking out further underrated gems and drawing parallels with captivating personal tales from his own life experience, backed by cinematic music, so we can rest easy.

In this third episode, Thom looks at the Straight-to-DVD offerings from "The Olsen Twins", self made millionaires from their empire of teenage market films. Thom looks at the journey of their success, and draws parallels with the wise (and not so wise) choices he's made in his life.

"...a seductive experience" The Guardian

Produced by Lianne Coop.

THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (b083r1jv)
Sean Curran reports from Westminster.

FRIDAY 02 DECEMBER 2016

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b083l925)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b0849c3s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]

FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b083l927)
The latest shipping forecast.

FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b083l929)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.

FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b083l92c)
The latest shipping forecast.

FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b083l92f)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b084ywkm)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster, Anna Magnusson.

FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b083l92h)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Sally Challoner.

FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03x45jq)
Goldeneye

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Bill Oddie presents the goldeneye. Although they're a common winter visitor, you'll need to travel to Speyside in the Scottish Highlands to see goldeneyes in their breeding season where, since 1970, a small population has bred there. Unlike dabbling ducks, such as mallard and teal, they don't need muddy shorelines and lots of vegetation. Goldeneyes are diving ducks that feed mainly on shellfish and crustaceans.

FRI 06:00 Today (b084ywkp)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b083m2zq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Sunday]

FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b0849ccf)
Reality Is Not What It Seems, Beyond Space and Time

Do space and time truly exist? What is reality made of? Can we understand its deep texture? Scientist Carlo Rovelli has spent his whole life exploring these questions and pushing the boundaries of what we know.

He describes how our understanding of reality has changed throughout the centuries, from the philosophers and scientists of antiquity to contemporary researchers into quantum gravity.

Episode 5: Beyond Space and Time
What happened before the Big Bang? Rovelli's account of scientific discovery takes us to the very frontiers of what we know about the creation of our universe.

Author: Carlo Rovelli
Reader: Mark Meadows
Abridger/Producer: Sara Davies

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.

FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b083l92k)
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.

FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b0844vfx)
Gudrun's Saga, Episode 5

By Lucy Catherine

Gudrun, a young woman in 11th century Iceland, must forge her path through a world of unearthly beauty yet uncompromising harshness. Modern re-telling of classic Icelanders' saga.

Gudrun's blissful life is interrupted when her childhood sweetheart returns from abroad, bringing with him a new wife.

Gudrun . . . . . Kate Phillips
Freija . . . . . Samantha Dakin
Bolli . . . . . Gavi Singh Chera
Kjartan . . . . . Luke MacGregor
Olaf . . . . . John Bowler
Vigdis . . . . . Finlay Robertson
Hrefna . . . . . Natasha Cowley
Sigrid . . . . . Rosa Yevtushenko

Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko.

FRI 11:00 Supply and Demand (b083r1zh)
Sushma Puri enters the world of the supply teacher to explore concerns that the current system is unfair to the teachers and is damaging the quality of children's education.

There are over 40,000 supply teachers working in UK schools each week. Many like the flexibility, but others are raising concerns that supply agency fees are too high and the current system is failing teachers, schools and children.

Sushma hears from supply teachers who have been thrown into problem classes where they've been threatened and intimidated - and claim that they have been unsupported by permanent staff. She examines how the turnover of supply teachers has impacted the quality of children's education and, through audio diaries, discovers the reality of everyday life as a supply teacher. Why is that children's behaviour deteriorates as soon as a supply teacher walks in through the door?

Sushma also hears from the organisers of a campaign to improve pay and conditions for supply teachers and visits a lobby group outside the offices of an agency in Coventry.

With schools across the UK spending over 900 million pounds a year on supply staff, the programme interviews heads who are unhappy, teachers who want an end to the agency system and entrepreneurs offering alternative models.

Presenter: Sushma Puri
Producer: Brian King
A Tigereye production for BBC Radio 4.

FRI 11:30 Charles Paris Mystery (b083r275)
The Cinderella Killer, Episode 1

by Jeremy Front
Based on Simon Brett's novel

Directed by Sally Avens

A job in Panto seems the perfect way to spend the Christmas season for Charles, but the cast of Cinderella are a motley crew from reality TV and Charles finds himself having to explain the traditions of Panto to their baffled American star whose career is on a downward trajectory. It's not long before the slapstick makes way for a murder investigation and Charles as always can't help doing some sleuthing of his own.

Bill Nighy (Love Actually, Skylight, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) stars as Charles.
Simon Brett OBE has written 19 Charles Paris novels as well as many other detective novels. Jeremy Front is a dramatist and comedic writer; he has won awards for his adaptation of 'Sword of Honour' and co-writes and stars in the series 'Incredible Women' with his sister, Rebecca.

FRI 12:00 News Summary (b083l92m)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

FRI 12:04 Witness (b083rdtv)
The Attica Prison Riot

Series looking at key events in history, featuring archive accounts from the people who were there.

FRI 12:15 You and Yours (b083l92p)
Consumer news and issues.

FRI 12:57 Weather (b083l92r)
The latest weather forecast.

FRI 13:00 World at One (b083l92t)
Analysis of news and current affairs.

FRI 13:45 Self Drives: The Trabant (b083r277)
The End of the Road

Will Self finally reaches Zwickau, the birthplace of the Trabant.

With gearbox problems having ruined hopes of arriving in his own Trabant, Will and his friend Mike have no choice but to complete their journey by train.

Nevertheless, their arrival causes something of a stir. The local museum have some surprises in store - including a meeting with the widow of the man who designed the iconic communist car.

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

FRI 14:00 The Archers (b083r1jl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]

FRI 14:15 Tommies (b083r2fd)
2 December 1916

British Indian Army soldiers discover the topsy-turvy world of a Turkish POW camp, in this story by Avin Shah.

Of the 10,000 British Army combatants taken prisoner after the seige of Kut-al-Amara, half of the Indian soldiers and two-thirds of the British have died on forced marches to Turkish camps. Now they find themselves starved and worked as slave labour on the Baghdad to Berlin railway. Rival sergeants Ahmadullah and Zarbab have found their own ways of surviving. But which one is the real traitor?

Meticulously based on unit war diaries and eye-witness accounts, each episode of TOMMIES traces one real day at war, exactly 100 years ago.

And through it all, we'll follow the fortunes of Mickey Bliss and his fellow signallers, from the Lahore Division of the British Indian Army. They are the cogs in an immense machine, one which connects situations across the whole theatre of the war, over four long years.

Punjabi translation: Sukhdeep Singh Jodha of UK Punjab Heritage Association
With thanks to Jatinder Verma of Tara Arts, and Nasim Rashid

Series created by Jonathan Ruffle
Producers: David Hunter, Jonquil Panting, Jonathan Ruffle
Director: Jonquil Panting.

FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b083r9wz)
Burnham-on-Sea

Horticultural panel programme.

FRI 15:45 Life at Absolute Zero (b083r9x1)
Gimme Shelter

Successful gardener Michael returns to Meridian Cliffs. But is he too tender a plant to survive being transplanted to such punishing coastal conditions? Happy memories of a long-ago record shop bring him a ray of hope.

Written and read by Lynne Truss
Directed by Kate McAll
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.

FRI 16:00 Last Word (b083r9x3)
Obituary series, analysing and celebrating the life stories of people who have recently died.

FRI 16:30 More or Less (b083r9x5)
Tim Harford investigates the numbers in the news.

FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (b083r9x7)
Cynthia and Maggie - The Same Dad

Fi Glover introduces a conversation between sisters who shared the same father 17 years apart and recognise how different their childhoods were. 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 (b083l92w)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b083l92y)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

FRI 18:30 The Now Show (b083r9x9)
Series 49, Episode 5

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis are joined by Nish Kumar, Dane Baptiste, Rachel Parris and Jess Ransom to present the news via topical stand up and sketches.

Written by the cast with additional material from Sarah Morgan, Jane Lamacraft, Robin Morgan and Sophie Dukar.

Producer Adnan Ahmed

BBC Studios Production.

FRI 19:00 The Archers (b083r9xc)
Roy has some unwanted attention, and Brian asserts his authority.

FRI 19:15 Front Row (b083l930)
News, reviews and interviews from the worlds of art, literature, film and music.

FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b0844vfx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]

FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b083r9xf)
Roger Bootle, Lisa Nandy MP, Sarah Wollaston MP

Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion from Bedford School with a panel including economist Roger Bootle, Labour MP Lisa Nandy MP, and the Conservative MP and chair of the House of Commons Health Select Committee Sarah Wollaston MP.

FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b083r9xh)
A reflection on a topical issue.

FRI 21:00 A History of the Infinite (b084d0t7)
Omnibus, Part One

University of Oxford professor Adrian Moore explores the philosophical, mathematical and cultural history of the infinite through two and a half millennia.

In this first of two episodes, Adrian discovers why the Ancient Greeks abhorred the notion of infinity and introduces us to the Greek philosopher, Aristotle. He describes how the church attempted to stamp its authority on the debate and how that led to some explosive disagreements amongst medieval thinkers, before bringing us to the verge of the modern world and the way we think now.

Having looked at the infinite in philosophical and theological terms, Adrian then views it through the lens of mathematics, considering the pivotal role mathematics has played in the quest to understand the infinite.

A Juniper production for BBC Radio 4.

FRI 21:58 Weather (b083l932)
The latest weather forecast.

FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b083l934)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.

FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b083r9xk)
Nutshell, Episode 5

The first episode of Nutshell by the acclaimed author Ian McEwan and read by the actor Tim McInnerny.

Ian McEwan's latest novel is a modern-day riff on Hamlet told from the unusual perspective of an unborn child who eavesdrops on his mother and property developer uncle as they plot the murder of his father.

'Bounded in the nutshell' of Trudy's womb, the foetus is witness to a plot. Unable to escape the confines of the uterus, he is forced to eavesdrop on his mother Ger(Trudy) and her lover, property-developer Claude, as they plan to murder his father, a hapless poet called John Cairncross. The ambitious but deeply banal Claude is of course brother to John and, consequently, villainous uncle to the unborn narrator. Claude and Trudy devise an elaborate facade involving anti-freeze and a great many props to cover their tracks and suggest that John's death was actually suicide. As witness to all these goings-ons, the nine-month old resident of Trudy's womb keeps up a running commentary that is both tragic and wryly entertaining, as he muses on his own future and becomes determined to subvert their plan and avenge the murder. Nutshell's Denmark is an elegant Georgian terraced house in London St. John's Wood that has become shabby and dilapidated, but Claude has designs on it.

It's a classic tale of murder and deceit told with tremendous wit and clever wordplay and is a brilliant re-working of the Shakespearean original.

Tim McInnerny is known for his many roles on television and stage appearing in films such Johnny English and TV such as Sherlock and the recent National Treasure. Early in his career he featured as Lord Percy Percy and Captain Darling in the Blackadder series.

Ian McEwan is a critically acclaimed author of short stories and novels for adults. His novels include The Child in Time, which won the 1987 Whitbread Novel of the Year, The Cement Garden, Enduring Love, Amsterdam which won the 1998 Booker Prize, Atonement, Saturday, On Chesil Beach, Solar, Sweet Tooth and The Children Act.

FRI 23:00 A Good Read (b083p887)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]

FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (b083r9xm)
Mark D'Arcy reports from Westminster.

FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (b083r9xp)
Pauline and Lucy - Grandmother's Footsteps

Fi Glover with a conversation about the close bond that unites Lucy and her grandmother; they recognise the traces of inheritance, but also their individual strengths. 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.