SATURDAY 15 APRIL 2017
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (b08lfcdz)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
SAT 00:30 Book of the Week (b08lk3jh)
David Jones: Engraver, Soldier, Painter, Poet, In Parenthesis - The Epic War Poem
Thomas Dilworth's biography of the visual artist and poet, David Jones, illuminates the life and work of a great but neglected Modernist. Today, the years spent in the First World War's trenches take their toll. The epic war poem, In Parenthesis reaches a conclusion, and we hear David Jones himself read an extract.
Read by Nicholas Farrell
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b08lfcf1)
The latest shipping forecast.
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b08lfcf3)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
5.20am.
SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b08lfcf5)
The latest shipping forecast.
SAT 05:30 News Briefing (b08lfcf7)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b08lk5kp)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with His Grace Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK.
SAT 05:45 iPM (b08lxzz9)
iPM is the news programme that starts with its listeners. Email ipm@bbc.co.uk. Twitter: @BBCiPM. Presented by Luke Jones and Eddie Mair.
SAT 06:00 News and Papers (b08lfcf9)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SAT 06:04 Weather (b08lfcfc)
The latest weather forecast.
SAT 06:07 Open Country (b08ljxbs)
Skiving at Poverty Bottom, Newhaven
Ian Marchant travels back to Newhaven in East Sussex, to learn to see a familiar landscape through fresh eyes. He grew up round here, bunking off school with his mates on the South Downs and the derelict Newhaven Fort (now beautifully restored).
There's a weird mix of things to look at in panorama here: a glimpse of the iconic Seven Sisters (white cliffs, anyone?), stereotypically English rolling green hills, the industrial business of the ferry port to Dieppe and a new and massive biomass incinerator that upset local residents when it was built. But it's all potentially beautiful, depending on how you look at it.
While his friends the Bugman, the Starman and the Painter were all busy looking at bugs, stars and landscape, what was Ian doing? Since he left the town, the South Downs has become a National Park and the air above it is now an International Dark Skies Reserve.
It's time for Ian to return to the birthplace of Wreckless Eric to find out.
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (b08lfcff)
Farming Today This Week - Livestock markets
2017 sees the 200th anniversary of the UK's first ever livestock market, which was held in Hawick in the Scottish Borders in 1817. In this programme, Sybil Ruscoe visits the livestock market at Ross-on-Wye, where cattle and sheep are regularly auctioned. She hears about the history of the market, and meets both auctioneers and farmers to find out about the importance of the market to the local community. Since the mid 1990s, many livestock markets have closed, unable to recover after the impact of BSE and then Foot and Mouth disease. But, as Sybil finds out, some are still thriving. She asks how they will cope with the challenges which may come their way in the years ahead. In an age when cattle, like anything else, can be sold online - what future is there for the traditional livestock auction?
Presented by Sybil Ruscoe and produced by Emma Campbell.
SAT 06:57 Weather (b08lfcfh)
The latest weather forecast.
SAT 07:00 Today (b08m8q7v)
News and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (b08lfcfk)
Milton Jones, Sam Sweeney, Catherine Howell, Michael Volpe.
Comedian Milton Jones; musician Sam Sweeney; opera impresario Michael Volpe and curator Catherine Howell join Aasmah Mir and Kate Silverton.
Milton Jones is a stand-up comedian, known by many as the king of the one-liners. A regular panellist on BBC Two's Mock the Week, he has a penchant for wild hair and colourful shirts and a gentle, self-deprecating wit. Later this year he embarks on a new tour, Milton Jones is Out There, taking a philosophical look at his life so far with what he calls his 'manifesto of nonsense'. Milton Jones is Out There 2017 tour begins in September at the Richmond Theatre.
Michael Volpe is the general director and co-founder of Opera Holland Park. Brought up by a single mother on a London council estate, he attended the progressive Woolverstone Hall School in Suffolk which took inner city London boys, often from broken families, and gave them the opportunity to explore art and culture at an early age. Passionate about making opera accessible to everyone, Michael has directed a short film, From Footy to Verdi, in which he introduces his three sceptical friends and fellow Chelsea supporters to the joys of opera. Opera Holland Park's new season opens on June 1st.
Six years ago Sam Sweeney, fiddle player with Bellowhead, bought a violin in Oxford. It had all the appearance of a new instrument but the label inside gave the date 1915 and the name Richard S Howard. Sam discovered the violin had been made - but never finished - by a luthier and some-time music hall performer from Leeds called Richard Spencer Howard who died in battle during the First World War. The violin languished unfinished for many years until it was completed in 2007 and placed in the window of an Oxford music shop where it was spotted by Sam. Sam tells the extraordinary story of his fiddle in his show Made in the Great War which tours in June.
Catherine Howell is collections manager at the V & A Museum of Childhood. She curated the exhibition, Game Plan: Board Games Rediscovered which traces the history and enduring appeal of board games. From the Senet board of Ancient Egypt to the mobile phone app, Words with Friends, game playing has remained a constant and important part of people's lives, a friendly way to compete and a necessary escape from reality. Game Plan: Board Games Rediscovered is at the V & A Museum of Childhood until April 23rd.
Producer: Paula McGinley
Editor: Anne Peacock.
SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (b08m8q7x)
Series 16, Swansea
Jay Rayner and his team of cooking experts visit Swansea. Rachel McCormack, Annie Gray, Rob Owen Brown and Andi Oliver are this week's panellists.
This week, the panel discuss local Swansea salt lamb and what to do with lamb leftovers. They also dig into the history of the Simnel Cake, advise on cooking with seaweed, and settle the argument of whether or not to peel mushrooms.
Producer: Darby Dorras
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett
Food consultant: Anna Colquhoun
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 11:00 The Forum (b08mdrl2)
Mata Hari: Dancer, Lover, Spy
It is 100 years since the exotic dancer and legendary 'femme fatale' Mata Hari was executed by a French firing squad for passing secrets to the Germans during the First World War. She was described at the time as the 'greatest woman spy of the century'. But many now see Mata Hari as a convenient scapegoat, condemned merely for her unconventional lifestyle.
Bridget Kendall discusses the myths and realities surrounding women in espionage with Julie Wheelwright, Programme Director of non-fiction writing at City University in London, Tammy Proctor, Professor of History at Utah State University in the USA and Hanneke Boonstra, a Dutch journalist who is writing an official blog about Mata Hari as part of this year's centenary commemorations in the Netherlands.
(Photo: Mata Hari. Credit: Getty Images).
SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (b08lfcfm)
Stamina of the Strongmen
Controversial votes in Turkey and Kashmir, and a university challenged in Hungary. Kate Adie introduces correspondents' stories: Justin Rowlatt is in Kashmir on election day where he sees plenty of police and protestors, but where are the voters? In Turkey Mark Lowen finds that paranoia has reached the level of absurdity ahead of the country's referendum. Not only are TV chefs accused of being spies, but our own correspondent comes under suspicion of being a foreign agent, though thankfully not for long. In Cuba Linda Pressly meets the scientists behind a cancer vaccine now being trialled in the US; they owe everything to Fidel Castro, they tell her. As part of the World Service Life Stories season, Sahar Zand meets the Toraja people of Eastern Indonesia for whom death doesn't always mean goodbye. And in Hungary Nick Thorpe dips his toe into the stream of controversy that surrounds the government's ongoing war against liberalism.
SAT 12:00 News Summary (b08lfcfp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 12:04 Money Box (b08m8q7z)
The Care Fee Trap
If you need long term care when you get old, you can expect it to cost over £30,000 a year; every year, until you die.
Money Box investigates the companies that offer a solution: put your assets into a trust and you can protect your home and savings from care fees.
But can these companies really beat the system?
Presenter Michael Robinson discovers why these schemes may not work and asks if the sale of care fee protection strategies is another symptom of a crisis in funding for social care.
To find out, he speaks to Andrew Dilnot, who recommended the Government cap care fee liability six years ago. Is Dilnot right that all of this would come to an end if his reforms were introduced? And is he right to call the means test for care fees, the most pernicious in the whole welfare state?
Producer: Matt Bardo
Reporter: Michael Robinson
Editor: Andrew Smith.
SAT 12:30 The Now Show (b08lk546)
Series 50, 14/04/2017
Steve Punt presents the week in news through stand-up and sketches.
SAT 12:57 Weather (b08lfcfr)
The latest weather forecast.
SAT 13:00 News (b08lfcft)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (b08lk54b)
Sarah Champion MP, Stephen Dorrell, Giles Fraser, Dominic Raab MP
Ritula Shah presents political debate from the Radio Theatre at Broadcasting house London with the Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities Sarah Champion MP, Chair of the NHS Confederation and of the European Movement Stephen Dorrell, the Rev Giles Fraser, and the Conservative MP Dominic Raab.
SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (b08lfcfw)
Listeners have their say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?
SAT 14:30 Drama (b08m8q81)
BACH: The Great Passion
Simon Russell Beale as Johann Sebastian Bach in a drama revealing how the St Mathew Passion was written, composed, rehearsed and performed in the build-up to its first performance in Leipzig on Good Friday 1727.
Entering the final weeks of rehearsals, Bach struggles to complete his Great Passion while he also runs a boarding school of fifty-five pupils (some of whom are hopeless at music) and supports a continuously pregnant wife.
James Runcie's play recreates the vicissitudes and exultations of his gargantuan undertaking, while retaining the intimacy, surprise and profound sympathy which is at the heart of the work.
Arriving in Leipzig in 1727, Bach, the newly appointed Kapellmeister, sets out his plan for the staging of the Passion and the story of the persecuted Christ. He intends that it will be directly personal music, written not in Latin but in German, using the words " We" and "I" for the choruses and arias. In a radical move for the time, he insists on the individual responsibility of every musician in the unfolding drama. The story, he insists, involves us all and saves us all from the terror of death.
An exhausted Bach is increasingly impatient during rehearsals, interrupting and bullying his performers; so much so that his wife Anna Magdalena, though pregnant with her second child, is called on to mediate and prevent a walk-out.
Anna Magdalena is the only one who can bring harmony to the home as well as to the music. But it's a race against time to be ready for the first performance.
Simon Russell Beale is one of the most notable actors of his generation and was himself a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral School in London. Melody Grove, as Anna Magdalena Bach, trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, where she won the James Bridie Gold Medal in 2009. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Olivier Awards 2016 and won the Clarence Derwent Award 2016 for her performance as the female lead, alongside Mark Rylance, in Farinelli and the King,
The music and choral rehearsals for this production were recorded in Edinburgh's world famous Greyfriars Kirk, with the choir and musicians of the Dunedin Consort under the directorship of John Butt, and with the choristers St Mary's Music School and choirmaster Duncan Ferguson.
John Butt - Director and Organ/Harpsichord
Soloists:
Jacob Slater - Boy Soloist
Joanne Lunn - Soprano
Robert Davies - Bass
Chorus:
Joanne Lunn
Emily Mitchell
Esther Brazil
Rory McLeery
Kenny Reid
David Horton
Robert Davies
Jerome Knox
Children of St Mary's Music School Choir:
Taylor Torkington
Madeleine Gill
Mattea Sacco
Carlo Massimo
Choir Master: Duncan Ferguson
Huw Daniel - Violin
Katy Bircher - Flute
William Hunt - Violone
Produced by Marilyn Imrie
Directed by Eoin O'Callaghan
A Big Fish production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (b08lfcfy)
Laura Mvula, Lilly Singh, Parenting classes, and Min Kym
Are parenting classes useful or interfering? Journalist Cristina Odone and Naomi Eisenstadt, the first director of Sure Start, discuss the pros and cons of officially learning how to be a parent.
Singer-songwriter Laura Mvula opens up about living with anxiety and panic attacks for the last 10 years.
The violinist Min Kym discusses the impact that losing her prized violin she called 'her soulmate' had on her and her career.
The American actor David Schwimmer and director Sigal Avin have produced a series of short films about sexual harassment in a bid to raise awareness of the issue. The Australian journalist Van Badham argues that the success of these films is down to the fact that he has lent masculine validity to the cause. So, is there a place for men in the feminist movement? Van Badham and Andrew Harrison, Contributing Editor, Esquire magazine discuss.
Vlogger and comic actress, Lilly Singh (aka Superwoman) talks about her new book 'How to be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life,' and fame as a Youtube phenomenon.
Consent, a new play written by Nina Raine. It looks at the ordinary people who seek out the legal system when alleged victims of rape. She joins Baroness Helena Kennedy QC to talk about the issue.
And three years since 276 girls were abducted from a secondary school in Chibok in north-eastern Nigeria by militant Islamist group Boko Haram. 195 of them are still being held. We hear from one of the girls escaped and from Habiba Adamu, BBC correspondent in Abuja.
SAT 17:00 PM (b08lfcg0)
Saturday PM
Full coverage of the day's news.
SAT 17:30 iPM (b08lxzz9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:45 today]
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b08lfcg2)
The latest shipping forecast.
SAT 17:57 Weather (b08lfcg4)
The latest weather forecast.
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b08lfcg6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (b08lfcg8)
John Bishop, Simon Bird, Daniel Mays, Dawn O'Porter, Antonio Zambujo, Maia, Arthur Smith, Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson and Arthur Smith are joined by John Bishop, Simon Bird, Daniel Mays and Dawn O' Porter for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from António Zambujo and Maia.
Producer: Debbie Kilbride.
SAT 19:00 Profile (b08m8mpv)
Rex Tillerson
On Profile this week, we look at the life and career of new US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson.
He flew to Moscow this week to urge Russia to abandon its support for Syria's President Assad following the chemical weapons on a town in northern Syria earlier this month.
It seems he came away empty handed, with Donald Trump warning that relations between Russia and the US were now at "an all-time low".
So who is Rex Tillerson ?
Mark Coles gets to grips with Tillerson's past : his formative years in the Scouts, his time as a drummer at university, the four decades spent at oil and gas giant ExxonMobil where he ended up as CEO and his controversial business ties with Russia which now hang over his new role as America's top diplomat.
SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (b08lfcgb)
The Handmaiden, White Tears, Guards at the Taj, Born to Kill, Game Changers
South Korean film director Park Chan-Wook's latest film "The Handmaiden" is based on Welsh writer Sarah Waters' hit 2002 novel Fingersmith about a lesbian love affair in Victorian England transported to 1930s Korea.
Award winning British writer Hari Kunzru's fifth novel, White Tears, is a ghost story, a terrifying murder mystery, a timely meditation on race, and a love letter to all the forgotten geniuses of American music and Delta Mississippi Blues.
American Pulitzer Prize nominee Rajiv Joseph's new play opens at the newly refurbished Bush Theatre in London and tells the story of two guards at the Taj Mahal, as the magnificent monument nears completion in Agra, India in 1648.
Born to Kill is a new four-part drama exploring the mind of Sam, a teenager on the verge of acting out suppressed psychopathic desires. As this chilling coming of age drama unfolds, decades of deceit are revealed and Sam's family's long buried past returns with a vengeance. Starring Romola Garai (The Hour, Suffragette) and Daniel Mays (Line of Duty).
And Game Changers, Another Way to Play at Somerset House in London shows how designers and artists continuously adapt the mechanics of familiar games, featuring chess, billiards and mazes.
SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (b08m8mpz)
Archive Fever
Matthew Sweet attempts to live in the moment and evade posterity as he pieces together an edition of Archive on 4 without the use of any archive whatsoever - and in a valiant attempt at auto-destructive radio, tries to remove all trace of this very programme from the world.
Archives are everywhere. They're in every business, every high street, every attic and every pocket: museums consecrated to all kinds of ephemera, collections of writerly marginalia awaiting the attention of curious researchers - and self-storage warehouses are flourishing, as people pay to hold onto those things they can evidently live without.
And as we stand there at the concert filming the action over the heads of all the other people filming the action, or Live Tweet the latest drama or extend our selfie stick to squeeze ourselves in next to the Mona Lisa, aren't we missing something fundamental? Isn't this ever-present urge to archive (as if we're afraid of impermanence, confused about what's public and what's private) affecting our ability to experience the here and now?
Usually in one of these programmes it isn't long before we hear a grainy old bit of tape or the long-preserved voice of some venerable figure - the ancestor worship of the sound archive. But not this time.
Like an excursion in retro radio, this programme has to be experienced in real time. It won't be available on iPlayer or the programme webpage or as a podcast. If you want to hear it you'll have to tune in as it is broadcast. After that... it will be no more.
Featuring: William Basinski, Mike Figgis, Christopher Frayling, Aleks Krotoski, Hanif Kureishi, Andy Martin, Caroline Shenton and Carolyn Steedman.
With music recorded for the programme by Rhodri Davies.
Producer: Martin Williams.
SAT 21:00 Drama (b08lgbwy)
King Solomon's Mines, Episode 2
Extraordinary tales from the golden age of adventure
Tim McInnerny stars as intrepid explorer Allan Quatermain in the second episode of this classic Victorian story - the impossible quest for the fabled King Solomon's Mines, set in a mythical African interior. This gripping story is a treasure hunt, a mystery, a psychological drama, and a kaleidoscope of sound.
Allan Quatermain is writing a journal for his son Harry as he believes he will never return from accompanying Sir Henry Curtis on his mission to find the fabled King Solomon's Mines, in order to find out what has happened to Sir Henry's younger brother George who set out on the same quest the year before. Quatermain, Sir Henry, Captain Good and their bearer Umbopa are being escorted to the town of Loo by Chief Infadoos to meet the blood-thirsty King Twala of the Kukuana and his witch-finder Gagool. The adventurers watch the terrifying night of the great witch hunt when countless Kukuana perish. Their mysterious bearer Umbopa is not what he seems and may be their only hope of survival and of finally finding King Solomon's Mines.
Written by Rider Haggard
Dramatised by Chris Harrald
Directed by Liz Webb
Adapter Chris Harrald's previous adaptations for Radio 4 include M.R. James' ghost stories, four series of the Edwardian detective series The Rivals and several Classic Serials, including The Lost World and Three Men in a Boat.
SAT 22:00 News and Weather (b08lfcgd)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.
SAT 22:15 Glass Half Full (b08ljmlv)
Series 1, Gender equality is within reach
Is ingrained negativity preventing us from seeing that full gender equality is just around the corner?
In a debate recorded in front of an audience at the Women of the World festival at the Southbank Centre, Fi Glover examines the thoughts of pessimists and optimists. She asks not only what they think about gender equality, but also how their views are informed by their contrasting mindsets. Where does their optimism or pessimism come from?
We have made extraordinary strides towards gender equality - the pay gap is shrinking, female representation in parliament and in business is growing and, all over the world, legislation is coming into force that safeguards women's rights. These are the views of optimist and best-selling sociologist Dr Michael Kimmel.
On the other hand, violence against women is on the rise in the UK, men still dominate politics and the judiciary and there are still more CEOs called John leading FTSE 100 companies than women! Historian Hannah Dawson brings us back down to earth.
Three expert witnesses are called to give evidence - MP Harriet Harman, best-selling Turkish author Elif Shafak, and sociologist Catherine Hakim.
The pessimist and the optimist cross-examine the witnesses and, to conclude, the audience votes. Is the glass half empty or half full?
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 23:00 Brain of Britain (b08lgpr5)
Heat 12, 2017
(12/17)
In the last of the 2017 Brain of Britain heats the competitors are from Northwich in Cheshire, Bingley in West Yorkshire, Wigton in Cheshire and Hilton in Derbyshire. The winner will go through to the semi-finals, and it's also the last chance for a runner-up to notch up a high enough score to qualify. Russell Davies, the competitors and the audience are the guests of the UTC at Media City UK in Salford.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
SAT 23:30 The Echo Chamber (b08lgbx2)
Series 9, Crude Poems: Making Poetry after the Torrey Canyon
Paul Farley in Cornwall hears new and old poetry of oil spills fifty years after the Torrey Canyon. How might a poet write an environmental disaster? With Jos Smith, Jane Darke, and Richard Pearce. Producer: Tim Dee.
SUNDAY 16 APRIL 2017
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b08m8yf5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
SUN 00:30 Short Works (b08lk53y)
Series 1, Pork Cooked with Prunes in Vouvray
In Tessa Hadley's specially commissioned short story a 1970s dinner party leads Alison to reflect on the truths obscured by glamour and privilege. Read by Kate O'Flynn.
Tessa Hadley is the author of six novels, and three short story collections, the most recent is the critically acclaimed Bad Dreams and Other Stories.
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b08m8yf7)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b08m8yfc)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
5.20am.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b08m8yfj)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b08m8yfl)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b08m93m8)
St Mary the Virgin, Hanbury in Worcestershire
This week's Bells on Sunday comes from the church of St. Mary the Virgin, Hanbury in Worcestershire. You may hear these bells more often than you think because the Archers uses them as the fictional "St. Stephen's Church". The present ring of 8 bells was last cast before the Second World War by John Taylor of Loughborough. We hear them now ringing Single Oxford Bob Triples.
SUN 05:45 Profile (b08m8mpv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b08m8yfs)
The latest national and international news.
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b08m8yfx)
Easter: A Matter of Life and Death
In this Easter Sunday special episode, Master of the Temple Church, Robin Griffith-Jones, explores the fascinating parallels between the story of creation in Genesis and the Easter story as told in John's gospel.
The music is sung by the eighteen voices of the Temple Church Choir.
Robin explains that the Temple Church, an oasis of calm in the heart of the City of London for over 850 years, is the perfect place for an examination of the Easter narrative. Three hundred years after Jesus died, the Emperor Constantine rediscovered his tomb. Constantine built around it a vast circular church - The Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Move on another 800 years and the Christians ruled Jerusalem. Back home in Europe, they built a handful of round churches like the Temple Church, on Fleet St in London, designed to recreate the Sepulchre's shape and so its sanctity.
Sat in the beautiful surroundings of his beloved church, with the sunlight streaming in through stained glass windows and the voices of the choir permeating the air, Robin leads us on a theological journey deep into John's gospel.
Robin describes the gospel of John as a strange and poetic text that invites us to see ourselves and the world in a new way. Robin reveals that John's Easter narrative is filled with allusions to Genesis - indeed his whole gospel can be read as the story of a new creation.
Presenter: Robin Griffith-Jones
Producer: Max O'Brien
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 06:35 Sunrise Service (b08m93mb)
Malta is famous for its Easter morning processions of 'Statues of the Risen Christ' which attract thousands of people in towns and villages throughout the island. The Easter Sunrise service explores this tradition and comes from St Paul's Pro Cathedral in Valletta, Malta, where the Chancellor, the Reverend Canon Simon Godfrey, lights the Paschal Candle from the Easter Fire. Producer: Andrew Earis.
SUN 06:57 Weather (b08m8yfz)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b08m8yg1)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (b08m8yg3)
Easter Sunday Special: Religion in Rural Life
Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme.
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (b08m93md)
National Aids Trust
Jonathan Grimshaw, one of the first people in the UK to be diagnosed with HIV, makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of National Aids Trust.
Registered Charity Number 297977
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 'NAT'.
- Cheques should be made payable to 'NAT' or 'National Aids Trust'.
SUN 07:57 Weather (b08m8yg5)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b08m8yg9)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b08m93mg)
Easter Sunday Worship
A feast of Easter carols and hymns at this festal Easter Eucharist live from Norwich Cathedral with preacher the Bishop of Norwich the Rt Revd Graham James.
Thine be the Glory (Maccabaeus); Communion service in C (Stanford); Acts
10:34-43; Easter Anthems (Ashley Grote); Gospel Acclamation (Michael Nicholas); John 20:1-18; The Lord of the Dance (Carter arr. Ashley Grote); The Day of Resurrection (Ellacombe); Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah (Handel)
Master of Music: Ashley Grote, Organist: David Dunnett. Producer: Helen Lee.
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378x87)
Yellow Wagtail
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Michaela Strachan presents the yellow wagtail. Arriving in April, Yellow Wagtails are summer visitors to the UK, breeding mostly in the south and east. The Yellow Wagtail has several different races which all winter south of the Sahara and all look slightly different. The birds which breed in the UK are the yellowest of all.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b08m8ygc)
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 (b08m8ygh)
Justin gets an unexpected offer, and Harrison offers an olive branch.
SUN 11:15 The Reunion (b08m98q2)
Women of Punk
Sue MacGregor reunites five musicians who embraced the anarchy of punk music and created a unique style of their own.
For many young people, Britain in the late 1970s was a place without hope. Unemployment was high. The value of the pound was low and, despite the feminist activity of the early 1970s, the most many girls aspired to was to marry well and look good.
Female role models were hard to fine - especially in music. The only all-girl troupes on Top of the Pops were Legs and Co.
Then punk happened.
Women could dress how they liked, behave how they wanted and develop their own sound without being manipulated by the mostly male gatekeepers of the record industry. Young women who didn't fit the traditional mould of femininity found a new tribe in punk. A place where they could finally be themselves. But the movement attracted fear and aggression from straight society. And few made much money from the short-lived scene.
Sue MacGregor brings together five female punk pioneers.
Gaye Advert, bass player in The Adverts, was described as the first female punk star. But the industry focus on her looks caused animosity in the band.
Toyah Willcox, an aggressive tomboy, found her emotional rebellion in punk and appeared in Derek Jarman's cult punk film Jubilee.
Gina Birch of The Raincoats played her first gig in November 1977 a few weeks after forming her all-female band.
Tessa Pollitt abandoned her A levels to join all girl punk band, The Slits.
Vivien Goldman was in the The Flying Lizards and Features Editor on the weekly music paper, Sounds. She is now a Professor of Punk in New York.
The guests discuss the impact and legacy of their movement.
Producer: Karen Pirie
Presenter: Sue MacGregor
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:00 News Summary (b08m8ygk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 The Unbelievable Truth (b08lgq9j)
Series 18, Episode 2
David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents.
John Finnemore, Henning Wehn, Lou Sanders and Miles Jupp the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as names, Germany, secrets and nudity.
Produced by Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:32 Food Programme (b08m98q5)
Food Stories from Venezuela Part 2: Maria Fernanda Di Giacobbe
Dan Saladino meets a woman who believes Venezuela's escape from crisis rests on chocolate. Maria Fernanda Di Giacobbe is on a mission to reclaim her country's former cacao bean glory.
SUN 12:57 Weather (b08m8ygm)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b08m8ygp)
Global news and analysis.
SUN 13:30 Recycled Radio (b081tflw)
Series 5, Magic
A fresh take on magic in the company of cartoonists Gerald Scarfe. We have conjurors, illusionists, prestidigitators and sleight of hand artists. Mountebanks, magi and mentalists. Conmen, snake oil salesman and politicians. Quite a lot of politicians.
The quickness of the hand deceives the eye as we chop, loop, scratch, mix and mash the radio archive to produce something from nothing.
Producer: Jolyon Jenkins.
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b08m98qb)
Ullswater
Eric Robson and the panel are in Ullswater. Joining him this Easter Sunday are Pippa Greenwood, Bob Flowerdew and Matt Biggs.
Produced by Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett
A Somethin' Else production fro BBC Radio 4.
SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (b08m98qd)
Omnibus - Difficult but Important Conversations
Fi Glover with conversations about needing to have a conversation in spite of aphasia, a love life despite prostate cancer, and the ability to re-pay the country that took you in. 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 (b08m98ql)
The Hours, Episode 1
The radio debut for the Pulitzer winning book by Michael Cunningham inspired by Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway. Starring Rosamund Pike, Fenella Woolgar and Theresa Gallagher.
Three very separate women. They live in different locations and different eras but they are bound by their passion for Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway. As they experience life on a Tuesday in June, their thoughts and experiences echo each other and become intertwined.
In Richmond in 1923, Virginia Woolf (Fenella Woolgar) sits down to write a novel calling her heroine Mrs Dalloway. In Los Angeles in 1949, Laura (Teresa Gallagher) sits in bed reading Mrs Dalloway. In New York in the 1990s, Clarissa (Rosamund Pike) goes out to buy flowers for a party mirroring the start of the day for the fictional Mrs Dalloway. The party is for her best friend Richard who long ago dubbed her Mrs Dalloway.
Weaving together themes of bisexuality, mental illness, middle age, the trials of creativity, parental guilt, marital discord, suburban isolation, infertility, friendship and loss - the three stories become one.
In the first episode, the women go about their day. Virginia is struggling to write in Richmond where she feels banished but is cheered by a visit from her sister. Laura has domestic tasks and a small son to look after but all she wants to do is read, and Clarissa struggles to prepare for a huge party in honour of her friend Richard but she's worried that he is so sick. Each finds a way to make it through to the afternoon of the same day in June.
Michael Cunningham's enormously popular and critically successful book won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and inspired the film starring Nicole Kidman. He called his story The Hours because that was a title that Virginia Woolf had considered. He says Mrs Dalloway was a huge influence on his life because he read the novel as a response to a dare when he was 15 and then decided to be a writer.
Sony Award winning writer Frances Byrnes adapted the book for radio.
Composer: Gene Pritsker
Pianist: Carrolyn Eden
Sound Design: Steve Bond
Adapted for radio by Frances Byrnes
Directed by Judith Kampfner and Polly Thomas
Produced by Judith Kampfner
Executive Producer Celia De Wolff
A Corporation For Independent Media production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 16:00 Open Book (b08m98qn)
Luiza Sauma, Easter Writing
Mariella Frostrup talks to Luiza Sauma about her novel Flesh and Bone and Water. It's the story of a middle aged man looking back on his childhood in Rio after his former teenage lover writes a letter to him with a promise of revelation.
We celebrate Easter week with Peter Stanford and Michael Arditti who discuss their favourite Easter writings; from CS Lewis to poetry from a 17th century Anglican vicar.
And we look ahead to World Book Night when thousands of books are being given away free including Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged the debut novel by Ayisha Malik. She joins Mariella to discuss the event and her novels which have been described as the Muslim Bridget Jones.
SUN 16:30 The Echo Chamber (b08m99f7)
Series 9, Who's There, by Greta Stoddart
Paul Farley hears a new radio poem, Greta Stoddart's Who's There, a sequence set in a Dorset care home. With music by Jon Nicholls. Producer: Tim Dee.
SUN 17:00 Adventures in Social Mobility (b08lh7gf)
What are the unwritten rules you must learn to get a top job? Hashi Mohamed came to the UK aged nine, as an unaccompanied child refugee, with hardly any English. His academic achievements at school were far from stellar. Yet he now works as a barrister - and so is a member of one of the elite professions that have traditionally been very difficult for people from poor backgrounds to crack. So how did he do it? In a personal take on social mobility, we meet his mentors. These are the people who gave him a few lucky breaks and showed him how to fit in to a world he could barely imagine. But how many people can follow that path? And why should they have to?
Producer: Rosamund Jones
(Image: Hashi Mohamed. Credit: Shaista Chishty).
SUN 17:40 Profile (b08m8mpv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b08m8ygr)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 17:57 Weather (b08m8ygt)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b08m8ygw)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b08m8yh0)
Ian McMillan
Ian McMillan chooses his BBC Radio highlights.
SUN 19:00 The Archers (b08m9b9n)
Lilian has a spring in her step, and Toby offers little comfort.
SUN 19:15 Hal (b08m9flm)
Series 2, Racists
The second series of the sitcom with Hal Cruttenden finds the hapless house husband still trying to cope with his mid-life crisis and doubting his every move.
His wife Sam (Kerry Godliman) is still a highly successful business woman, his two daughters Lily and Molly continue to grow into teenagers and find their dad just a little annoying, his bitter and embittered sister Pippa (Abigail Cruttenden) has inconveniently decided to stay with Hal alongside her angry teenage son Oberon, racist neighbour Penny (Ronni Ancona) proves to be a major thorn in Hal's side and best mates Fergus (Ed Byrne) and Barry (Gavin Webster) hinder rather than help Hal's goal of finding himself.
In this second episode, as his wife is nominated for Business Woman of the Year, Hal is interviewed on local news and inadvertently becomes an internet sensation.
Written by Hal Cruttenden and Dominic Holland
Produced by Paul Russell
An Open Mike production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 19:45 Life at Absolute Zero (b08m9flp)
Series 2, The Shortest Way Home
Lynne Truss observes the inhabitants of Meridian Cliffs, a small wind-battered town on the south coast of England. Sarah Birkett can't stand people who dither. She manages the nursing staff at the local care home for the blind, where her decisiveness is a positive asset.
But was she too quick to make her mind up about Colin?
Directed by Kate McAll
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 20:00 More or Less (b08lk542)
Economics of Overbooking
This week, passengers on a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Kentucky witnessed an extraordinary sight. Security officers seized hold of a seated passenger and dragged him down the aisle by his arms. And the cause of all of this chaos? The airline found that it did not have enough seats left to accommodate everyone it wanted to get onto the plane. But could maths - and some cheerful bribery - prevent incidents like this from occurring again?
The pitfalls of fact-checking
It seems to be a burgeoning age for fact-checkers. There are websites and journalists keen to examine the truth behind what politicians and governments say. More or Less has been part of that tradition for many years. But do people always find these fact-checks persuasive? And when does fact-checking and myth-busting backfire? We take a look at some of the problems.
Humans or goldfish
Everyone knows our attention spans are getting shorter. It's just obvious. In the always-connected world of social media, smartphones and hyperlinks in the middle of everything you read, it's become that much harder to stay focused. And there are statistics too. They say that the average attention span is down from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to eight seconds now. That's less than the nine-second attention span of your average goldfish.
But the statistics are not all that they seem - and neither is the received wisdom about goldfish.
Plus, we also ask why, when children's teeth are getting healthier, so many newspapers have been reporting that tooth extractions are on the rise. And are house prices increased by a good school - we're not so sure.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Charlotte McDonald.
SUN 20:30 Last Word (b08lk540)
Masha Leon, Tim Pigott-Smith, Christopher Morahan, Parv Bancil, Marthe Gosteli, Brian Matthew
Julian Worricker on:
The society columnist and Holocaust survivor, Masha Leon....
Actor Tim Pigott-Smith and director Christopher Morahan, who worked together on ITV's The Jewel in the Crown....
Playwright Parv Bancil whose work tackled issues affecting young British Asians....
Marthe Gosteli, who was at the forefront of the campaign to get women the vote in Switzerland....
And the broadcaster, host of 'Sounds of the Sixties', Brian Matthew.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (b08m8q7z)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b08m93md)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 In Business (b08ljz9v)
Northern Ireland and Brexit
What are the economic and business prospects for Northern Ireland after Brexit?
It's the only part of the UK sharing a land border with an EU country - the Republic of Ireland. The border throws up many challenges.
And amid concerns about investment, profit and talent, Matthew Gwyther hears business voices who are optimistic about the future and those who worry about the future for peace.
Producer: Penny Murphy.
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b08m8yh2)
Carolyn Quinn and guests preview the week in politics. Plus 'Political Thinking' with Nick Robinson, this week asking whether the NHS is sustainable in its current form - with guests the former Labour Health Secretary Alan Milburn; the former Treasury Permanent Secretary, Lord Macpherson; cancer specialist Professor Karol Sikora; and health policy expert Professor Allyson Pollock.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (b08ljxc9)
Sarah Waters on The Handmaiden
Sarah Waters tells Francine Stock what she thinks of the Korean adaptation of her novel Fingersmith
Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Tim Robey unlock some of the mysteries of David Lynch's Mulholland Drive
Writer Shawn Levy reveals some of the real-life stories about the paparazzi that inspired La Dolce Vita, including an infamous striptease at a high society party that made headlines across the western world.
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b08m8yfx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 17 APRIL 2017
MON 00:00 Midnight News (b08m8yng)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (b08ljfxg)
Special programme on winner of Ethnography award
The winner of the British Sociological Association/Thinking Allowed Ethnography award 2017 is Hilary Pilkington, Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester. She talks to Laurie Taylor about her study of the English Defence League. What beliefs and goals animate this right wing populist group? What ethnical issues are raised by studying the extreme Right? She's joined by the celebrated American sociologist, Arlie Hochschild, who took a similar journey to the white heartlands of the American Right.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b08m93m8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b08m8yp8)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b08m8ypb)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b08m8ypd)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (b08m8ypx)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b08n9f2k)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with His Grace Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (b08m8yqn)
The Glory of Gloucesters
Clifford Freeman is at the centre of a fight for survival. He's devoted to the ancient English breed of Gloucester cattle and owns the largest herd in the country. They're renowned for their mahogany coloured coat, distinctive white-stripe and the famous Gloucester cheeses made from their milk. Vernon Harwood visits Clifford's Redmarley farm to see some of his 260 animals and hears about efforts to ensure a future for the breed by creating a new market for Gloucester beef.
In 1972 the breed was facing extinction when the last pure-bred herd went up for auction at a dispersal sale in Arlingham. It was Clifford's father, Eric, who was among a small band of enthusiasts who stepped in to buy the stock, preserve the heritage and re-launch the Gloucester Cattle Society. Forty-five years later the Freeman name is once again synonymous with preserving and promoting the Old Gloucester. It's hoped the latest figures from the Rare Breeds Survival Trust showing an increase in the number of registered breeding cows will be the start of a revival.
MON 05:56 Weather (b08m8yqr)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03zqzsv)
Curlew (Spring)
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Kate Humble presents the curlew. The haunting song of the curlew instantly summons the spirit of wild places. By April, most curlews have left their winter refuge on estuaries and marshes and have returned to their territories on moorland or upland pastures. Wherever they breed you'll hear the male birds singing and displaying. It's often called the bubbling song.
MON 06:00 Today (b08m8yrl)
News and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (b08m8yrn)
The Age of Spectacle?
On Start the Week Andrew Marr explores the fashions and fads in architecture and food over the last fifty years. In 'The Age of Spectacle' the design critic Tom Dyckhoff explores how consumer culture has impacted on the building of our cities, from iconic architecture on a grand scale to soulless shopping centres and designer homes. The average life span of a family home in Japan is just 25 years: although the architect Takeshi Hayatsu regrets the destruction of so much of Japan's architectural heritage, he reflects that it's created a boon in innovate designs on a small scale. Innovations also abound in food technology and the experimental psychologist Charles Spence reveals how chefs can use science to influence diners and their taste buds, but the food writer Anissa Helou asks for a return to simplicity, away from the latest trends of 'molecular' techniques and foraged ingredients.
Producer: Katy Hickman
Image: Kiko Mozuna's model of 'Anti-Dwelling Box', late 1970s. Photo by Keizo Kioku. Collection of Norihito Nakatani.
MON 09:45 The Odyssey Project: My Name Is Nobody (b08m9h2h)
Series 1, Scylla and Charybdis
Escaping a war zone, a man tries to cross the sea on a flimsy raft. It disintegrates in a storm and he is washed ashore. A kind woman gives him clothes and people help him on his way. This is one episode in The Odyssey, but the parallels between Homer's ancient epic and what has been happening recently in the same region, are striking. When the Cyclops asks Odysseus what he is called he replies, "My name is Nobody."
Among the refugees, exiles and migrants who have arrived recently, and the offspring of those who came earlier, are poets. Radio 4 has commissioned 10 such writers, from various diasporas, to create new radio poems written in response to The Odyssey. Daljit Nagra, Radio 4's Poet in Residence, is curating The Odyssey Project and introduces the poets and the context of their pieces in relation to Homer.
In the first programme Mir Mahfuz Ali, who almost drowned in a whirlpool when he was forced to flee Bangladesh, responds to the Scylla and Charybdis episode, when Odysseus finds himself between a monster on rock and another in a whirlpool. Here, Ali creates a modern boat crossing, such as those we've been hearing about in the news for the past few years. Woodisi, poet and player of the oud, risks the perilous crossing aboard the Siren, in the hands of the dubious boat owner, Solyman.
Mir Mahfuz Ali comments himself, but because his voice was damaged when he was shot in the throat by a Bangladeshi policeman for singing anti war songs, the actor Zubin Varla reads Woodisi's words. Milad Yousofi plays the oud.
Producer: Julian May.
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b08m8yrq)
What's in a name?
What do our first names really say about us? More than you might think, according to Dr Jane Pilcher, Associate Professor at the University of Leicester. She claims that our names often reveal important clues about our age, social class and ethnicity that might affect the way that we are treated by other people. She joins Jane, along with name expert and the founder of the British Baby Names website, Eleanor Nickerson to discuss what's in a name.
How has this classic British name become synonymous with being middle of the road? The actor Jane Asher turned 71 earlier this month and was born in the year that Jane entered the UK top 50. Jane Brody celebrated her 30th birthday last week and was born the year after Jane stopped being a UK top 100 name.
Woman's Hour listener Victoria Smillie wanted to change her surname following her divorce, but realised in doing so that she had never been happy with her given name, Lesley, either. So she changed both. They are joined by another of our listeners, Tracy, who truly hates her name but can't quite bring herself to lose it. By the age of three, Esther Robertson had had three different first names and surnames. Esther joins Jane to discuss how her changing name has affected her life.
The author Charlotte Mendelson keeps lists of names and can deliberate for hours about what to call the characters in her novels. She joins us along with the journalist and editor Alex Clark to discuss the best and worst names in books.
Presenter: Jane Garvey
Producer: Laura Northedge.
MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b08m9h2k)
The Amateur Marriage, Episode 6
By Anne Tyler, dramatised by Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Episode six - 1972, It Has Not Been Fun
The celebration of Pauline and Michael's 30th Wedding Anniversary triggers a momentous decision.
Director: David Hunter.
MON 11:00 The Half: A Countdown to Performance (b08m9h2m)
The Half - called over the tannoy backstage at the theatre - is the beginning of the countdown to facing an audience.
Regardless of the highs and lows of daily life, performers have to harness themselves, step into the spotlight and use pressure to their advantage. The 30-minute call is when it all becomes a bit more serious - there's no escaping what lies ahead.
We hear the half-hour count down over the loudspeaker system as arts broadcaster and journalist Fiona Lindsay takes us behind the scenes in a West End theatre and a hospital operating theatre and explores how that crucial half hour before the curtain goes up plays out for performers of all kinds.
We go backstage at Matilda the Musical to follow actor Craige Els as he transforms into the terrifying Miss Trunchbull. At the Sheffield Children's Hospital, Paediatric surgeon Ross Fisher lets us in on the half hour before he performs an operation on a child. Comedian Mae Martin sizes up the audience as she waits stage-side to perform stand up in London's East End. World champion snooker player Steve Davis remembers the rituals that played out in his changing room in the half hour before he performed at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre. Rabbi Miriam Berger describes how she prepares to lead a funeral service. Performance psychologist Amanda Owens takes us through the techniques she teaches to top sports people.
Are there parallels that can be drawn between these very different kinds of performers? Fiona uncovers the psychological and physical routines our performers have in common, as well as the highly idiosyncratic rituals that individuals come to rely on.
Produced by Peggy Sutton and Chris Elcombe
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 11:30 Mark Steel's in Town (b05xggjr)
Series 6, Barnard Castle
Mark Steel's In Town - Barnard Castle
"Barnard Castle - The Hidden Gem"
Mark Steel returns to Radio 4 for a sixth series of the award winning show that travels around the country, researching the history, heritage and culture of six towns that have nothing in common but their uniqueness, and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for the local residents.
His tour of local towns continues as Mark Steel visits the County Durham town of Barnard Castle. A picturesque place - home to a castle, friendly locals and one of the most impressive and surprising museums on earth (really, it's ridiculous). In spite of all this, hardly anyone knows the town exists. Attempting to reach 'Barney' by public transport is not an easy task, taking so long that Mark begins to wonder if in fact it is a real place at all.
Mark speaks to local policeman PC Steven Purchase about the alarmingly low levels of crime in the area; marvels at the majesty of a silver, clockwork swan and tries to get to the bottom of why the people of Barnard Castle seem to keep the place such a secret.
Written and performed by ... Mark Steel
Additional material by ... Pete Sinclair
Production co-ordinator ... Hayley Sterling
Producer ... Carl Cooper
It was a BBC Radio Comedy Production.
MON 12:00 News Summary (b08m8ysk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 Home Front (b08lhqrg)
17 April 1917 - Ralph Winwood
On this day in 1917, newspapers reported that food prices had risen 94% since the start of the war, and Ralph Winwood returns from France to a Folkestone he doesn't recognise.
Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole
NOTES
HOME FRONT SEASON 10: OUR DAILY BREAD
Season Ten has as its theme the Church.
By April 1917, food shortages were becoming a focus of Great War Britain. In Berlin, the day before our season opens, there were food riots and strikes in protest against food rationing. Meanwhile in Britain, discussions were beginning about voluntary rationing for the upper classes, and the working classes struggled to afford what food there was.
Nearly three years into the war, with no prospect of peace on the horizon, and many, many families touched by loss and grief, the desire to memorialise the fallen took hold, and the debate about intercessionary prayers (i.e. for the dead) raged. Just after the season's close, the Archbishop of Canterbury controversially included an intercessionary prayer in his new prayer book.
Out of nowhere, on 25 May 1917, a fleet of Gothas attacked the South coast of Britain, specifically Folkestone, in the first ever air raid on Britain, causing the greatest number of civilian casualties of the war to date.
A special edition of Home Front: A LIGHTENING, written by Sarah Daniels and directed by Jessica Dromgoole, will be broadcast as Radio 4's Afternoon Drama on 25 May 2017 to mark this anniversary.
Season 10 of Home Front is story-led by Sarah Daniels (THE CAZALETS, EATING FOR ENGLAND), and written by Shaun McKenna (THE FORSYTES), Sebastian Baczkiewicz (PILGRIM, MR RAINBOW), and Katie Hims (LOST PROPERTY, BLACK DOG).
MON 12:15 You and Yours (b08m8ysm)
Organic Food
The organic sector accounts for 1.4 percent of the UK food and drink market, according to the National Farmers Union. At the moment a lot of the organic food grown in this country is imported - so the NFU says this could represent an opportunity for UK producers.
The market's also been growing for the past five years. The Soil Association says total sales of organic products increased by 7.1% in 2016 while non-organic sales continued to decline. We look at why that is, and investigate whether organic food is really any healthier.
We also visit Denmark. Half the Danish population buy organic products at least once a week and it accounts for 8.4% of all food and drink sales. What's driving that growth, and what, if anything, can the UK learn from it.
Plus, the Chairman of Yeo Valley, one of the UK's largest organic brands, talks to us about the challenges and opportunities that being an organic business presents.
Presenter: Samantha Fenwick
Producer: Jess Quayle.
MON 12:57 Weather (b08m8ysp)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 13:00 World at One (b08m8ysr)
Analysis of news and current affairs.
MON 13:45 The Ideas That Make Us (b08m9j1q)
Series 5, Hope
Why are we drawn to hope? Bettany Hughes visits a Buddhist Temple, The Palace of Westminster and the UK's largest food bank to find out why we're hard-wired to hope for the best.
With Classicist Paul Cartledge, Buddhist teacher and author of The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down Haemin Sunim, Conservative MP for Spelthorne Kwasi Kwarteng, and Michael Nixon and Brian Edden from the Newcastle West End Foodbank.
Producer: Dixi Stewart.
MON 14:00 The Archers (b08m9b9n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Tommies (b08m9k1l)
17 April 1917
Who appears at your bedside, when you're a serviceman who's expected to die?
Who appears in your head?
After two and a half years at war, the answers for Mickey Bliss hold plenty of surprises. And in this story by Nick Warburton, set in the officers-only Duchess of Westminster's No. 1 British Red Cross Society Hospital in Le Touquet, those surprises include a very unorthodox medical procedure.
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.
Series created by Jonathan Ruffle
Producers: David Hunter, Jonquil Panting, Jonathan Ruffle
Director: Jonquil Panting.
MON 15:00 Brain of Britain (b08m9kvg)
Semi-Final 1, 2017
(13/17)
The first semi-final of the 2017 season features three of the winners from the past three months of heats, plus a top-scoring runner-up. There's no such thing as an easy victory at this stage in the contest, with a place in the Final at stake.
Will the contenders know who staged an attempt to steal the Crown Jewels in 1671, or the temperature at which the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales coincide? Will their trigger fingers be quick enough to give them the chance to answer, even if they do?
As always, the contest features a chance for a Brain of Britain listener to win a prize by stumping the competitors with ingenious quiz questions of his or her own devising.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
MON 15:30 Food Programme (b08m98q5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 A Woman Half in Shadow (b08m9kvj)
Zora Neale Hurston. You might not recognise her name. She was an African American novelist and folklorist, a queen of the Harlem Renaissance and a contemporary of Langston Hughes and Richard Wright.
But when she died in 1960 she was living on welfare and was buried in an unmarked grave. Her name was even misspelt on her death certificate. Scotland's National poet Jackie Kay tells the story of how Zora became part of America's literary canon.
Alice Walker wrote in her collection of essays 'In Search of Our Mother's Gardens': "We are a people. A people do not throw their geniuses away. And if they are thrown away, it is our duty as artists and as witnesses for the future to collect them again for the sake of our children, and, if necessary, bone by bone."
And that's what Alice did: travelling to Florida in search of Zora's grave where she laid down a gravestone declaring Zora "A Genius of the South".
That was in 1973. Now Zora is claimed by many of America's leading novelists including Maya Angelou, Zadie Smith and Toni Morrison, as their literary foremother.
Eighty years since the publication of her greatest work 'Their Eyes Were Watching God', Jackie Kay tells Zora's story.
Interviews include author Alice Walker, the poet Sonia Sanchez, The Guardian's Editor at Large Gary Younge and Zora's biographer Valerie Boyd.
Readings by Solange Knowles.
Photo: Carl Van Vechten
Producer: Caitlin Smith.
MON 16:30 The Digital Human (b08m9kvl)
Series 11, Authenticity
Technology has always allowed us to push the boundaries of what's real and not real. From filters on our holiday snaps to recreating life in a laboratory.
Is it any wonder then that amidst all this 21st century noise we're searching for an authentic voice?
But what authenticity actually is can be difficult to define, particularly in the digital sphere where filters, artifice and simulation are part of the fabric of how we engage on social media.
From Aristotle to Frankenstein, to politicians tweeting from the bathroom, Aleks Krotoski goes in search of the authentic, taking a look at the drivers behind our preoccupation with allowing others to see 'the real self'.
Contributors include: science writer Philip Ball, Stephen Lussier of DeBeers, sociologist Ruth Penfold-Mounce, author Professor Andrew Potter, Dr Suzy Jagger and Instagrammer Stina Sanders.
Producer: Caitlin Smith.
MON 17:00 PM (b08m8yst)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b08m8yt7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 The Unbelievable Truth (b08m9kvp)
Series 18, Episode 3
David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents.
David O'Doherty, Richard Osman, Zoe Lyons and Marcus Brigstocke are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as bicycles, wine, trees and chocolate.
Produced by Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 19:00 The Archers (b08m9kvr)
Josh is on the warpath, and Elizabeth is pampered.
MON 19:15 Front Row (b08m8ytb)
Warren Beatty in Rules Don't Apply, Inua Ellams, Born to Kill
Warren Beatty has written, directs and stars in Rules Don't Apply, his film about the billionaire film producer, businessman and aviator, Howard Hughes. Writers Karen Krizanovich and Michael Carlson review.
Nigerian-born poet Inua Ellams discusses and performs from his new collection #Afterhours, in which he responds to other poets and their poetry.
Writer Stella Duffy reviews the new Channel 4 drama Born to Kill, from the producers of Line of Duty, starring Romola Garai, Daniel Mays and young actors Jack Rowan and Lara Peake.
Music writer and former A&R man Ben Wardle strokes his stubbly chin and ponders his long-lasting love affair with that classic music genre - pop.
Presenter Samira Ahmed
Producer Jerome Weatherald.
MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b08m9h2k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
MON 20:00 From the Couch to the Courtroom (b08m9kvt)
Helena Kennedy QC asks if our legal system is becoming too influenced by the culture of psychotherapy.
Is the desire to achieve closure in the courtroom, emotional release and catharsis, working through trauma - ideas extraneous to law and the proper purpose of the courts - threatening the adversarial system as a whole? Or have insights drawn from psychiatry and psychoanalysis added much-needed depth to law's own understanding of the human psyche?
Drawing on a range of expertise - judicial and psychoanalytic, from neuroscience and forensic psychiatry to historians of mental health and champions of the victim's voice in court - the programme examines the deep and sometimes uneasy relationship between law, psychotherapy and the mind doctors, and asks what its proper purpose might be.
Contributors include psychotherapist Adam Phillips, former Lord Justice of Appeal Alan Moses, forensic psychiatrist Nigel Eastman, writer and historian Lisa Appignanesi, Victims Commissioner Baroness Newlove and Harvard neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett.
Presenter: Helena Kennedy QC
Producer: Simon Hollis
A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (b08ljx91)
Coming Out of the Shadows in Kenya
For generations those who, for biological reasons, don't fit the usual male/female categories have faced violence and stigma in Kenya. Intersex people - as they are commonly known in Kenya - were traditionally seen as a bad omen bringing a curse upon their family and neighbours. Most were kept in hiding and many were killed at birth. But now a new generation of home-grown activists and medical experts are helping intersex people to come out into the open. They're rejecting the old idea that intersex people must choose a gender in infancy and stick to it and are calling on the government to instead grant them legal recognition. BBC Africa's Health Correspondent Anne Soy meets some of the rural families struggling to find acceptance for their intersex children and witnesses the efforts health workers and activists are making to promote understanding of the condition. She also meets a successful gospel singer who recently came out as intersex and hears from those who see the campaign for inter-sex recognition as part of a wider attack on the traditional Kenyan family.
Helen Grady producing.
MON 21:00 The Curse of Open Plan (b07m5nxy)
Open plan design is everywhere. But why? Office surveys say that most workers find the layout noisy and disruptive, preventing them doing their job properly. Julian Treasure explores the extent of the problem and how unwanted noise affects our productivity, health and well-being.
How did open plan evolve from the factory floor and cubicles of the past? Does the blame rest with the economics of property development and current trends in architecture?
There are pros - the collaborative aspects, for example - but how can we resolve the cons and create better offices of the future?
Contributors include: Prof. Jeremy Myerson, Royal College of Art; Tim Oldman, Leesman Index; Richard Mazuch, architect with IBI Group; Katrina Kostic Samen, KKS Strategy; Prof Bridget Shield, South Bank University; Ian Knowles, director of acoustics at Arup.
Producer: Dom Byrne
A Greenpoint production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 21:30 Start the Week (b08m8yrn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 21:58 Weather (b08m8ytd)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b08m8ytg)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b08mb39f)
Rabbit, Run, Episode 1
The post-war novel that summed up middle-class white America and established John Updike as the major American author of his generation. Rabbit, Run is the first in a virtuoso Pullitzer Prize-wining quintet featuring hapless Harry Angstrom, whom we meet as a 26 year old former high school basketball star and suburban paragon in the midst of a personal crisis.
Episode 1 (of 10):
When Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom joins an impromptu basketball game, he sets in motion a chain of decisions that will free him from the responsibilities of adult life - or so he hopes.
Rabbit, Run established Updike as one of the major American novelists of his generation. In the New York Times he was praised for his "artful and supple" style in his "tender and discerning study of the desperate and the hungering in our midst's".
Radio 4 plans to broadcast all five novels in the series over the next few years.
Read by Toby Jones
Abridged by Eileen Horne
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (b08lh6r1)
Frenchified: The Influence of French on English
Michael Rosen & Dr Laura Wright find out how much of our language comes from French roots, from Anglo-Norman onwards. A Sunday lunch menu from The Ritz is food for thought, and Dr Richard Ashdowne explains the surprising history behind many words we think of as English, with the help of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Producer Beth O'Dea.
MON 23:30 Short Cuts (b08497cx)
Series 10, The End of the Story
Josie Long presents short documentaries on things drawing to a close - from stories captured, bottled and buried over time, to reflections at the end of a life well-lived.
The Kajakman
Produced by Rikke Houd
Too Many Miles
Originally produced for the Third Coast International Audio Festival
http://thirdcoastfestival.org/explore/feature/too-many-miles
Produced by Stephanie Rowden and Jennifer Metsker
Harold
Featuring Harold Stevenson
Produced by Sarah Geis
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.
TUESDAY 18 APRIL 2017
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b08m8yw7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
TUE 00:30 The Odyssey Project: My Name Is Nobody (b08m9h2h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b08m8yw9)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b08m8ywc)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b08m8ywf)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b08m8ywh)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b08mq5xg)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with His Grace Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b08m8ywk)
Elver poaching, Peat in compost, Yorkshire whisky, New Zealand farming
Elvers in the River Severn are being caught illegally and being shipped to Asia where they're worth more than caviar. But the Environment Agency is cracking down on the poachers.
Conservation charities are warning that products containing peat should be more clearly labelled to help consumers make more sustainable choices when buying garden compost. A new survey found more than half of bagged compost sold in the UK still contains peat, despite commitments to phase it out. Peat is environmentally valuable as it stores carbon, and filters and stores water in upland areas, helping to prevent flooding.
And we begin a week looking at agriculture in New Zealand.
Presented by Sybil Ruscoe and produced by Sally Challoner.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b01sbz27)
Cuckoo - Female
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the female Cuckoo. The "cuckoo" call of the male is perhaps one of the most recognisable of all bird sounds. But the sound of "bathwater gurgling down a plughole" is much familiar and is the call of the looking for somewhere to lay her eggs.
TUE 06:00 Today (b08mb1fk)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (b08mb1fm)
Liz Sockett on friendly killer bacteria
Professor Liz Sockett studies an extraordinary group of predatory bacteria. Bdellovibrio may be small but they kill other bacteria with ingenious and ruthless efficiency.
Liz has devoted the last fifteen years of her career as a microbiologist to work out how this microscopic killer invades and consumes its victims - victims which include a host of disease-causing bacteria which have also acquired resistance to antibiotics which once killed them.
As well as studying the numerous tricks and weapons which Bdellovibrio have evolved to despatch and feed on other bugs, Prof Sockett's lab at the University of Nottingham is also testing the bacteria's potential as a new kind of treatment in the era of antibiotic resistance. Deadly infections may not be able to outwit this bacterial top predator in the way they have with ever increasing numbers of antibiotic drugs.
Liz talks to Jim Al-Khalili about how a BBC TV children's show first introduced her to the superfast killer bacteria, how Roman villas led her towards a life of discovery,
and how her lab in Nottingham might be compared to the kitchen of a restaurant and her team to a brigade of chefs.
Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker.
TUE 09:30 Whodunnit? (b0851kdg)
The Pregnant Teen Vanishes, Generation Sensible
Half of England's pregnant teenagers have vanished. They didn't go missing, they just never conceived. And the teenage pregnancy rate plummeted. It's one of the greatest societal mysteries we've seen. A real-life Whodunnit. Everyone wants to crack the case and keep rates dropping.
In Chapter 3, are we seeing the end of cider at the bus stop leading to drunken sexual encounters?
Michael Blastland is on the case in this non-fiction investigation, unravelling the causes at the root of the biggest trends. These are true-life mysteries that creep up on us until the pattern of our lives is altered. He examines the culprits and punctures presumptions about causation and its implications for policy making.
Encountering red-herrings, false accusations, Government conspiracy, and hack journalism, finding out whodunnit in the case of a 50% reduction in teenage pregnancy is not going to be easy.
At its heart may lie a Government desire to prevent under 18 conception - a well-meaning intention, backed up by some strong evidence that socio-economic disadvantage can be both a cause and a consequence of teenage motherhood. But what makes huge swathes of teenagers change their behaviour?
Whodunnit? is a new series and a new kind of investigation. It owes its style to detective storytelling. But the cases are unequivocally real. These are societal mysteries - true-life changes in the pattern of our lives, changes that might even feature some of us.
Presenter: Michael Blastland
Producer: Katherine Godfrey
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 09:45 The Odyssey Project: My Name Is Nobody (b08mq68c)
Series 1, Tamrat in the Cyclops' Cave
Reading Homer, the poet Alemu Tebeje was struck by how much the Cyclops' cave was like the Ethiopia that he had to leave. His poetic drama follows Tamrat as he grows up. His boyhood playing in the mountains - and a cave - is idyllic. He falls in love, but becomes involved in student protests and, hunted by a metaphoric Cyclops, the all-seeing, but narrow-sighted police, has to flee.
Tamrat in the Cyclops' Cave is a collaboration with the English poet Chris Beckett, who speaks Amharic. It is a richly sonic piece, in both languages, performed by a cast of Ethiopians living here, with music and sound from Addis Ababa and the mountains.
Writer and Narrator Alemu Tebeje
Producer: Julian May.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b08m8ywp)
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b08mb1fp)
The Amateur Marriage, Episode 7
By Anne Tyler, dramatised by Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Episode seven - 1978, The Piano Teacher
An unexpected encounter with Anna strikes just the right note for Michael.
Director: David Hunter.
TUE 11:00 The Shock (b08mb1fr)
Jude Rogers' father died suddenly when she was five, and she remembers every, vivid detail of the morning before she found out: the book she was reading in school, her walk through the school hall to meet her grandmother, the sun in her hair.
What happens when we go into shock? Anyone who has undergone a trauma remembers the strange mental and physical feelings such a moment brings, unlike any other. It may be triggered by an accident, a loss, death, devastating news, or lost love.
The feelings that came over us, the way the world changed shape, speed and sometimes colour, the superhuman strength we can feel, the incidental, insignificant details we notice and remember for years to come. What are the evolutionary reasons for this, and how do our brains change as a consequence?
In 'The Shock', writer Jude explores what happens when our brains go into survival mode during and after traumatic events.
War correspondent for The Times, Anthony Loyd, recalls the pin sharp focus of his senses which helped him escape his kidnappers, even after a severe punishment beating. John Samuel recalls the moment when he discovered he had 2 sisters, and a half brother, he never knew about (a good shock!) And Guardian columnist Suzanne Moore recalls the moment of discovering her daughters faced life threatening trauma.
Professor Sarah Garfinkle of Brighton and Sussex Medical School, explains the way the brain changes size and shape following trauma; Dr Gillian Forrester of Birkbeck University gives the evolutionary explanation for our instinctive reactions, and Jude heads out to an Essex airfield to meet 'flying trauma doctor' Simon Keane, at Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust, who has to deal both with his own shock, and that of patients on a daily basis. Marc Wittman, psychologist and author, helps Jude understand why time speeds up, or slows down when we have a shock.
Science combined with powerful storytelling.
Producer: Sara Jane Hall
Music sourced by Danny Webb.
TUE 11:30 The Honky Tonk Nun (b08mb1ft)
Kate Molleson travels to Jerusalem to meet a legend of Ethiopian music, the piano-playing nun, Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou.
Born in 1923 to a noble Ethiopian family, Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou was celebrated as a young musician in Addis Ababa - even performing for the Emperor Haile Selassie. But when she was mysteriously refused permission to take up a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London, her life changed forever, and she abandoned music.
For 10 years she lived on the holy mountain of Guishen, barefoot, in solitary prayer and meditation, until the monastery had to close and Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam headed home to Addis Ababa. There, she slowly returned to the piano keyboard, composing languorous waltzes, infected with the spirit of ancient Ethiopian music and with a free-wheeling sense of time.
In 1996, as her music became the 21st release in the now famous Ethiopiques series of records, she came to international attention. By this time she had fled the communist regime in Ethiopia and moved to Jerusalem to work for the Ethiopian Orthodox Patriarchy, where she now lives in a small cell, surrounded by her religious paintings, photographs of her family and of Emperor Haile Selassie propped up on top of her piano.
In recent years she has been moved to publish her work, editing a lifetime of manuscripts with the help of the Israeli musician and composer Maya Dunietz, and has set up a foundation in her name to help children to acquire instruments and music education.
A long time fan of Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam's music, journalist Kate Molleson talks with the musician turned nun who, now in her 90s, has led a remarkable life and is still driven to compose her unique music.
Produced by Peter Meanwell
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:00 News Summary (b08m8ywr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 Home Front (b08lhrkn)
18 April 1917 - Alec Poole
On this day in 1917, German strikers returned to work after protesting food shortages, and in Folkestone, Alec Poole offers spiritual sustenance to an unorthodox congregation.
Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
TUE 12:15 You and Yours (b08m8ywt)
Call You and Yours
Consumer phone-in.
TUE 12:57 Weather (b08m8yww)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 13:00 World at One (b08m8ywy)
Analysis of news and current affairs.
TUE 13:45 The Ideas That Make Us (b08mb1fw)
Series 5, Time
How should we best use our time? Bettany Hughes visits a centre of industry, a 98 year old philosopher and a theoretical physicist to find out.
With John Clayson Keeper of Science and Industry at Newcastle's Discovery Museum, Professor for the Public Understanding of Philosophy Angie Hobbs, 98 year old moral philosopher Mary Midgley, and theoretical physicist and author Seven Brief Lessons on Physics Carlo Rovelli.
Producer: Dixi Stewart.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (b08m9kvr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (b08mb1fy)
Almost Like Being in Love
Gemma Whelan (Game of Thrones and Moorside) stars in Catriona Knox's romantic comedy. What does love look like in a world of non-binary, gender-fluid, constantly hyphenated thinking?
Grace is equipped with all the emotional trappings of youth - confidence, confusion, crippling arrogance, crippling insecurity. She thinks of herself as sexually liberated - and she may be in theory, but she definitely isn't in practice. She's slept with three men, missionary-style. That's it.
Then she falls in love with Iggy (Rosie Cavaliero) - a charismatic, no-nonsense, forty-year-old LBGT matchmaker. And that's when life really starts to get bewildering.
As they attempt to embark on a relationship neither of them expected, both women navigate brave but very different new worlds. Iggy's new path is as alien to her as heterosexuality, while Grace has to work out if she really is fluid enough to grab the best thing that's ever happened to her with both hands.
A comic, coming of age story about love, sexuality, cats and Judy Garland.
As a writer/performer, Catriona Knox has had several successful character comedy shows at the Edinburgh Festival. As an actress, she has appeared regularly on television shows such as BBC Two's Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe and Revolting, and Channel 4's Damned. She has also had two comedy series on Radio 4 as part of The Boom Jennies. She is a part of the BBC's New Talent Hotlist 2017 for Writing. This is her first play for radio and one of four commissions from top stand up writer/performers creating their first radio drama.
Written by Catriona Knox
Producer: Caroline Raphael
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (b08m8q7x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (b08mb1g0)
Sinking Solomon Islands
Five of the Solomon Islands have already been lost to sea level rise and many more are being rendered uninhabitable. For wildlife film-maker and marine biologist, Ellen Husain that's not just a disturbing quirk of climate change, it's a family concern.
At the beginning of the 20th century her great uncle, Stanley Knibbs was the Chief Engineer and Surveyor of the Solomon Islands, drawing up some of the first maps of the region for the British Empire. He fell in love with this Pacific paradise and wrote a warm and witty memoir of his time with the islanders.
One hundred years on Ellen is anxious to find out how the islands have changed. How is sea level rise at three times the global average disturbing the ancient rhythms of life? Can crops continue to be grown in land that grows saltier by the day? Can ancient traditions like shark-calling and megapode egg-collecting survive as tribal communities are broken up and moved to higher ground.? And what lessons can the rest of the world learn from the people on the frontline of sea level rise that we're all likely to endure over the next century.
Producer: Alasdair Cross
Stanley Knibbs played by Mark Meadows
All photos by Ellen Husain.
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (b08mb1g2)
How Countries Got Their Names
Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright find out how countries - including this one - got their names, and what they mean. Why isn't Greenland green? How is Venezuela like a Little Venice? And what's the only state in the world named after a woman? With Professor Richard Coates.
Producer Beth O'Dea.
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (b08mb1g4)
Series 42, Ermonela Jaho on Mother Teresa
Biographical series presented by Matthew Parris.
TUE 17:00 PM (b08m8yx0)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b08m8yx2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Rob Newman's Neuropolis (b08mb1g6)
Series 1, Love on the Brain
One of Britain's finest comedians, Rob Newman, is our guide on a unique audio odyssey of the brain, taking in everything from love and guilt to robot co-workers and the unlikely importance of prehistoric trousers.
It's a witty, fact-packed series mixing stand-up and sketches, challenging notions of neuroscience with a new theory that's equal parts enlightening and hilarious.
Rob offers an alternative to some of the more bizarre claims in modern popular science, as well as rejigging theories of our brains in light of what we know about nature, artificial intelligence and Belinda Carlisle.
Created by the award-winning team behind Robert Newman's Entirely Accurate Encyclopaedia of Evolution.
Written by and starring Rob Newman
Co-starring Claire Price and Richard McCabe
Producer: Jon Harvey
Executive Producer: Richard Wilson
A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (b08mb1g8)
Peggy hears the good news, and Ruth wants to keep a low profile.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (b08m8yx4)
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b08mb1fp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 Trump at Studio 54 (b08mb1gb)
Frances Stonor-Saunders explores how the young Donald Trump stormed into Manhattan from the outer boroughs in the late 1970s and headed straight for New York's most outrageous nightclub. He didn't dance, didn't drink, and didn't take drugs. So what was he doing in the cocaine-fuelled hothouse of the Disco revolution? And what was the link to Roy Cohn, infamous attack dog of the McCarthy era, go-to Attorney for the Mob and the man Trump was happy to call his mentor?
Producer: Fiona Leach
Research: Serena Tarling.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (b08m8yx6)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.
TUE 21:00 Document (b07kpy46)
Fu Bingchang's Diaries
Fu Bingchang was the Chinese ambassador to Moscow as the Second World War became the Cold War. During his time in Moscow, as the two great communist powers felt their way towards their own kind of post-war settlement, Fu Bingchang kept a personal diary in which he recorded not just the details of his meetings and engagements, but also about his personal life and private hopes and fears for the future.
There are very few records of the birth of post-war Chinese diplomacy, and the diaries are an important piece in the jigsaw of national alignments during the 1940s. In this Cold War edition of Document, his granddaughter Yee Wah Foo of the University of Lincoln opens up the diaries to the public for the first time and shares the inner thoughts of China's man in Moscow.
Producer: Hannah Loy.
TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (b08mb1fm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b08m8yx8)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b08n1kgp)
Rabbit, Run, Episode 2
The post-war novel that summed up middle-class white America and established John Updike as the major American author of his generation. Rabbit, Run is the first in a virtuoso Pullitzer Prize-wining quintet featuring hapless Harry Angstrom, whom we meet as a 26 year old former high school basketball star and suburban paragon in the midst of a personal crisis.
Episode 2 (of 10):
Rabbit returns to Mt Judge and turns to his old high school basketball coach for advice about his marriage - but instead, finds himself introduced to an alternative partner.
Rabbit, Run established Updike as one of the major American novelists of his generation. In the New York Times he was praised for his "artful and supple" style in his "tender and discerning study of the desperate and the hungering in our midst's".
Radio 4 plans to broadcast all five novels in the series over the next few years.
Read by Toby Jones
Abridged by Eileen Horne
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 23:00 Kevin Eldon Will See You Now (b08mb3wt)
Series 3, Tarquin & the Tiny Studio
Comedy's best kept secret ingredient returns with another series of his own sketch show. In this episode, more thrilling adventures of Commander Topper Hargreaves and his faithful dog Duke, a sneak preview of a new opera with extra wine gums, and of course some vitreous castanets.
Kevin Eldon is a comedy phenomenon. He's been in virtually every major comedy show in the last fifteen years, but not content with working with the likes of Chris Morris, Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci, Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, Stewart Lee, Julia Davis and Graham Linehan, he's also created his own comedy series for BBC Radio 4.
After all the waiting - Kevin Eldon Will See You Now.
Also starring Amelia Bullmore (I'm Alan Partridge, Scott & Bailey), Julia Davis (Nighty Night), Paul Putner (Little Britain), Justin Edwards (The Thick Of It), David Reed (The Penny Dreadfuls) and Rosie Cavaliero (Alan Partridge, Harry and Paul).
Written by Kevin Eldon with additional material by Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris (A Touch Of Cloth and, yes, those modern Ladybird books)
Original music by Martin Bird
Produced and directed by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (b08mb3ww)
Sean Curran reports from Westminster.
WEDNESDAY 19 APRIL 2017
WED 00:00 Midnight News (b08m8yz9)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
WED 00:30 The Odyssey Project: My Name Is Nobody (b08mq68c)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b08m8yzc)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b08m8yzf)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b08m8yzh)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (b08m8yzk)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b08nkq0r)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with His Grace Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (b08m8yzm)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378wz1)
Bullfinch
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Michaela Strachan presents the Bullfinch. The males have rose-pink breasts and black caps and are eye-catching whilst the females are a duller pinkish-grey but share the black cap. Exactly why they're called Bullfinches isn't clear - perhaps it's to do with their rather thickset appearance. 'Budfinch' would be a more accurate name as they are very fond of the buds of trees, especially fruit trees.
WED 06:00 Today (b08mb5r1)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Only Artists (b08mb5sj)
Series 1, Chi-chi Nwanoku and Yinka Shonibare
The Only Artists conversation continues, as leading double-bass player Chi-chi Nwanoku meets the artist Yinka Shonibare, to find out how he draws on his own identity in his work.
Producer Alex Mansfield.
WED 09:30 Everything You Think About Sport Is Wrong (b085gqjm)
Intellectuals
In the third episode of his series confronting common misconceptions about sport, Simon Barnes explains why he believes sport is for intellectuals.
From French philosopher goalkeepers to James Joyce's Ulysses, Simon argues that to rule out sport as not for intellectuals is to write off some very interesting people. He makes the case for dramatic narrative without authorial intention, and he discusses with former England cricketer Ed Smith the relationship between literary modernism, sport and intellectual life.
Producer: Giles Edwards.
WED 09:45 The Odyssey Project: My Name Is Nobody (b08mq6n1)
Series 1, Odysseus, the Patron Saint of Foreigners?
Mona Arshi, who was a human rights lawyer before following her vocation as a poet, takes us through her own parent's journey from Northern India to Britain in the 1960s. Her piece is partly the poetic narrative of first her father's journey, and then her mother's, who followed later. It is, too, a meditative essay on what arrival and settlement means. How do we create home, and what happens to that which we have left? Arrival can be signalled by an event as much as a journey's end - her father in a queue of recently landed Sikhs outside the barbers, waiting to have their long hair cut for the first time because, now they're in the West, they will no longer wear their turbans.
The actor Vincent Ebrahim tells Mona Arshi's father's story. Her mother tells her own which, as she follows her husband, is the opposite of Penelope's, the wife of Odysseus. And there is poetry in English and Punjabi, about the next generation, rooted and growing here.
Producer: Julian May.
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b08m8yzr)
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
WED 10:41 15 Minute Drama (b08mbgxf)
The Amateur Marriage, 1984, No Hot Water
By Anne Tyler dramatised by Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Episode eight - 1984, No Hot Water
After 13 years as a divorcee Pauline still finds living by herself difficult
Director: David Hunter.
WED 10:55 The Listening Project (b08mbgxh)
Ruby and Kathleen - The Toilet Explodes
Memories of privies and rubbish collection on Derry's close-knit Fountain Estate before and after the War. Introduced by Fi Glover. Another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
WED 11:00 From the Couch to the Courtroom (b08m9kvt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
WED 11:30 Believe It! (b08mbgxk)
Series 3, Truth
The third series of Jon Canter's not quite true autobiography of Richard Wilson.
After a brush with death, Richard Wilson concludes that it's time to tell the truth. To everybody. He can't just be nice all the time. Sometimes you've got to tell it how it is.
Produced and Directed by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:00 News Summary (b08m8yzt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 Home Front (b08lhrmg)
19 April 1917 - Maisie Harris
On this day in 1917, a report from Russia claimed the revolutionary movement was spreading in the south with "tranquillity" that was "almost miraculous", while in Folkestone, Maisie Harris searches for the still, small voice.
Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
WED 12:15 You and Yours (b08m8yzw)
Consumer affairs programme.
WED 12:57 Weather (b08m8yzy)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 13:00 World at One (b08m8z00)
Analysis of news and current affairs.
WED 13:45 The Ideas That Make Us (b08mbgxm)
Series 5, Memory
We must look back before we can look forward. Bettany Hughes finds out why at an archaeological dig, a memorised musical performance, and a centre for neuropsychological research.
With archaeologist Michael Cosmopoulos, classicist Paul Cartledge, conductor of the Aurora Orchestra Nick Collon, and neuropsychologist Catherine Loveday.
Producer: Dixi Stewart.
WED 14:00 The Archers (b08mb1g8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (b08mbhhc)
Death of a Cosmonaut
Julian Rhind-Tutt stars in a powerful re-imagining of Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov's final moments as he hurtles towards earth.
Amid the space race frenzy of Cold War Russia, Vladimir Komarov was sent into space to mark the anniversary of Lenin's birth. Though his ship, the Soyuz 1, had failed multiple safety checks, the launch went ahead. As soon as he reached orbit, system failures began.
From the award-winning writer and director partnership behind Comment is Free comes a thrilling, heart-wrenching monologue which tries to make sense of progress and national pride in the face of inevitable death.
WED 15:00 Money Box (b08m8z02)
Money Box Live
Financial phone-in.
WED 15:30 Why Become a Doctor? (b07q8x6k)
Junior Doctors: A Matter of Life and Death
In the third and final part of our series looking at the experience of being a junior doctor we look at the social and legal pressures on doctors. Complaints against the medical profession are now far more common than they used to be. In some cases doctors may face legal action, including manslaughter charges. Coupled with this, being a doctor is a high stress occupation and doctors are especially bad at dealing with their own health issues. Societal changes over recent decades have had an impact on the status of doctors. In the past patients didn't question their doctors' decisions, but now, with the increasing spread of medical knowledge and complexity of the way modern medicine is delivered, we can expect to be much more involved in decisions about our care.
For junior doctors in the profession now, just how do they cope with all these differing pressures and still give their best for patients? Consultant anaesthetist Dr Kevin Fong, a doctor for nearly 20 years, investigates.
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b08mbjqh)
Sociological discussion programme, presented by Laurie Taylor.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (b08m8z04)
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world.
WED 17:00 PM (b08m8z06)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b08m8z08)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Can't Tell Nathan Caton Nothing (b04kf9mg)
Series 3, About Maturity
ABOUT MATURITY
In a mix of stand-up and re-enacted family life - Nathan decides to prove how mature he is in order to win back the girl that rejected him.
Written by Nathan Caton and James Kettle
Producer: Katie Tyrrell
Can't Tell Nathan Caton Nothing is a series about young, up-and-coming comedian Nathan Caton, who after becoming the first in his family to graduate from University, opted not to use his architecture degree but instead to try his hand at being a full-time stand-up comedian, much to his family's horror and disgust. They desperately want him to get a 'proper job.'
Each episode illustrates the criticism, interference and rollercoaster ride that Nathan endures from his disapproving family as he tries to prove himself.
The series is a mix of Nathan's stand-up intercut with scenes from his family life.
Janet a.k.a. Mum is probably the kindest and most lenient of the disappointed family members. At the end of the day she just wants the best for her son. However, she'd also love to brag and show her son off to her friends, but with Nathan only telling jokes for a living that's kind of hard to do.
Martin a.k.a. Dad works in the construction industry and was looking forward to his son getting a degree so the two of them could work together in the same field. But now Nathan has blown that dream out of the window. Martin is clumsy and hard-headed and leaves running the house to his wife (she wouldn't allow it to be any other way).
Shirley a.k.a. Grandma cannot believe Nathan turned down architecture for comedy. She can't believe she left the paradise in the West Indies and came to the freezing United Kingdom for a better life so that years later her grandson could 'tell jokes!' How can her grandson go on stage and use foul language and filthy material... it's not the good Christian way!
So with all this going on in the household what will Nathan do? Will he persevere and follow his dreams? Or will he give in to his family's interference? Or will he finally leave home?!
WED 19:00 The Archers (b08mbjqk)
Emma sets her sights on the future, and Anisha oversteps the mark.
WED 19:15 Front Row (b08m8z0b)
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b08mbgxf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:41 today]
WED 20:00 Glass Half Full (b08mbjqm)
Series 1, A global population of nine billion is sustainable
Should we stop worrying about our growing global population and look forward to an age of abundance and prosperity?
In a debate recorded in front of an audience at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Fi Glover examines the thoughts of pessimists and optimists She asks not only what they think about population growth, but also how their views are informed by their contrasting mindsets. Where does their optimism or pessimism come from?
Best-selling author and documentary maker Johan Norberg is an optimist, seeing positives wherever he looks. Population growth has coincided with a huge increase in prosperity and education levels, setting free our natural instinct to innovate. He believes technological advances will allow us to feed the extra mouths and clean up the planet.
Robin Maynard, a veteran campaigner and strategist and now chief executive of the charity Population Matters, has a very different view. He considers that even the current population is unsustainable, using one-and-a-half times the planet's resource limit, and adding billions more people will cause disastrous damage to the Earth's ecosystems.
Three expert witnesses are called to give evidence - statistician Professor David Spiegelhalter, Philosophy Professor Sarah Conly, and Joel Kibazo (former Director of the African development Bank).
The pessimist and the optimist cross-examine the witnesses and, to conclude, the audience votes. Is the glass half empty or half full?
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 20:45 Four Thought (b08mbjqp)
A Speck of Dust
Jay Owens argues that dust is a lot more interesting than we think, and we ought to pay more attention to it.
Jay has spent years researching dust, and produces a popular newsletter on the subject. In this fascinating Four Thought, recorded at the Design Museum in London, she shares some stories from the field of dust research that up until now have only been known to other 'dust people', as she calls her fellow dust researchers.
Producer: Giles Edwards.
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (b08mb1g0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 Only Artists (b08mb5sj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 21:58 Weather (b08m8z0g)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b08m8z0j)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b08n1kjg)
Rabbit, Run, Episode 3
The post-war novel that summed up middle-class white America and established John Updike as the major American author of his generation. Rabbit, Run is the first in a virtuoso Pullitzer Prize-wining quintet featuring hapless Harry Angstrom, whom we meet as a 26 year old former high school basketball star and suburban paragon in the midst of a personal crisis.
Episode 3 (of 10):
Rabbit and Ruth begin a romance of sorts after a one night stand - despite, or because of his recent escape from Janice, it is the start of a far more significant encounter.
Rabbit, Run established Updike as one of the major American novelists of his generation. In the New York Times he was praised for his "artful and supple" style in his "tender and discerning study of the desperate and the hungering in our midst's".
Radio 4 plans to broadcast all five novels in the series over the next few years.
Read by Toby Jones
Abridged by Eileen Horne
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 23:00 Tom Parry's Fancy Dressed Life (b08mqtpz)
Series 1, Scary
Episode 3: Scary. It's Halloween, the Christmas of Fancy Dress and Tom's friend Ben is having a party. The curse of the dreaded "internet orderers" and some traumatic memories of cub camp conspire to temporarily undermine Tom's status as local Fancy Dress Hero.
Tom Parry is an award winning comedian, writer and actor whose credits include Miranda, Phone Shop and Drunk History among many others. As a stand up, he most recently gained critical acclaim and an Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Newcomer nomination for his debut hour 'Yellow T-Shirt'. For more than a decade he has been part of the multi-award winning sketch team Pappy's. Together they have performed 6 sell out shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, completed 4 national tours, gigged all over the world, and created, written and starred in the sitcom 'Badults' for BBC3.
Cast: Tom Parry, Ben Clarke, Celeste Dring, Gareth Pierce
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production.
WED 23:15 Litter from America (b08mqs6c)
Series 1, Kwame Kwei Armah
Taking the songs of Bob Marley into riot-damaged parts of Baltimore and removing the bullet-proof glass barrier from the box-office of his Center Stage theatre are just two of the tasks undertaken by Artistic Director, Kwame Kwei Armah. He muses on the laughs and confusion caused by looking like an African-American but speaking with the cultivated tones and accent of a British actor.
Kwame grew up in London and found fame in the medical drama Holby City before he won the Evening Standard's Most Promising New Playwright award for Elmina's Kitchen, which was a success at the National Theatre. Set in a West Indian restaurant, Elmina's Kitchen tells a tale of family conflict and crime in Hackney, East London. He's also the writer and director of the Bob Marley musical, One Love.
In Litter From America, he reflects on how his character has changed over the years and the qualities he has, and has not, managed to pass onto his children. We also get a portrait of attitudes to President Trump, including those of Charlene Taylor, a hostess in one of the city's downtown diners.
A Foghorn Company production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (b08n1pgs)
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.
THURSDAY 20 APRIL 2017
THU 00:00 Midnight News (b08m8z2f)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
THU 00:30 The Odyssey Project: My Name Is Nobody (b08mq6n1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b08m8z2h)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b08m8z2k)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b08m8z2m)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (b08m8z2p)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b08nv17f)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with His Grace Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (b08m8z2r)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b01sby2t)
Dartford Warbler
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the Dartford Warbler. Dartford Warblers prefer Mediterranean wine-producing climates, which means ice and snow is bad news for them. The harsh winters of 1961 and 1962 reduced the population to just 11 pairs, but fortunately the numbers have since recovered.
THU 06:00 Today (b08md6h8)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (b08m8z2w)
Roger Bacon
The 13th-century English philosopher Roger Bacon is perhaps best known for his major work the Opus Maius. Commissioned by Pope Clement IV, this extensive text covered a multitude of topics from mathematics and optics to religion and moral philosophy. He is also regarded by some as an early pioneer of the modern scientific method. Bacon's erudition was so highly regarded that he came to be known as 'Doctor Mirabilis' or 'wonderful doctor'. However, he is a man shrouded in mystery. Little is known about much of his life and he became the subject of a number of strange legends, including one in which he allegedly constructed a mechanical brazen head that would predict the future.
With:
Jack Cunningham
Academic Coordinator for Theology at Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln
Amanda Power
Associate Professor of Medieval History at the University of Oxford
Elly Truitt
Associate Professor of Medieval History at Bryn Mawr College
Producer: Victoria Brignell.
THU 09:45 The Odyssey Project: My Name Is Nobody (b08mq7g1)
Series 1, Mr Nobody Listening to His Own Story at the Court of King Alincous
Golan Haji is a Syrian Kurdish poet and translator who writes in Arabic. He had to leave Damascus to avoid being drafted into Assad's army and now lives in Paris. Because of the difficulties of a refugee getting a visa to visit Britain, the BBC went to him to make this recording.
Haji has worked with the English poet Stephen Watts on this poem which is inspired by the episode in The Odyssey in which Odysseus hears his own told by a blind bard, but cannot reveal his identity. Yet, as much as this episode, the poem is driven by the idea of blindness as different mode of perception. Homer is said to have been blind; Odysseus listens to the blind bard's account of himself, and Haji was struck too by parallels in the work of the great Arabic poet Abul 'Ala Al-Ma'arri, who was also blind. Al-Ma'arri was a sceptical man and so a controversial figure, and in his hometown recently his statue was beheaded by the Al-Nusra Front. Look not for narrative in Haji and Watts' beautiful poem (though it is there), rather, enjoy its music and illuminating imagery.
Producer: Julian May.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b08m8z2y)
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b08md6hb)
The Amateur Marriage, 1990, His Voice Had Changed
By Anne Tyler dramatised by Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Episode nine - 1990, His Voice had Changed
After many years George Anton has a surprise visitor.
Director: David Hunter.
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b08md6w5)
Cuba's Cancer Revolution
Lung cancer is America's biggest cancer killer. But there is hope: the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has sanctioned trials of CimaVax - a treatment created in Cuba that has extended the lives of hundreds of patients on the island. This is the first time a Cuban drug has been tested in the US.
American cancer patients got wind of CimaVax five years ago. Patients like Judy Ingels - an American with a stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis - arrive regularly in Havana, hoping for a miracle. It's traffic that's increased since the US / Cuba thaw.
The creation of Cuba's biotech industry was Fidel Castro's idea back in the 1980s. Today it employs 22,000 people, and sells drugs all over the world - excluding the US. When Presidents Obama and Castro made their momentous move to end hostilities, doctors and patients on both sides of the Florida Straits hoped everyone might benefit from an exchange of life-saving treatments. Now there's deep anxiety. Will President Trump re-freeze the thaw, and jeopardise a revolutionary collaboration?
For Crossing Continents, Linda Pressly explores Cuba's bio-tech industry. How has this small Caribbean nation been able to develop world-class drugs with its limited resources?
THU 11:30 Printing a Nation (b08md6w7)
Series 1, Nationhood
Dr Anindita Ghosh from the University of Manchester explores the impact of the printing press on India and argues that print, much more than railways as is commonly understood, gave birth to the Indian nation that was born in 1947.
In this second programme, Anindita explores how the printing press played a fundamental role in the rise of nationalism in India. Starting with the nationalist newspapers, Anindita explores how English language papers as well as local language newspapers were crucial in forging anti-colonial sentiments among the reading public.
In response, the colonial government passed draconian acts which empowered district magistrates to seize presses of papers they deemed to be seditious. These measures applied to all publications, books and pamphlets as well as newspapers. But clamping down was not easy. Indian publishers found ingenious ways to avoid the censors. And alongside books, pamphlets and papers, there was the vast circulation of printed images that proved far more difficult to police by the colonial government than written texts.
Anindita argues that print was key to the shaping of a modern public sphere in India because print was the vehicle of critical ideas of community, history, society, culture and identity that emerged in modern India. Print was in that sense, modern India.
With Professor Tanika Sarkar (JNU, New Delhi), Professor Christopher Pinney (UCL, London), Professor Sunil Khilnani (KCL, London), Sandeep Hazareesingh (Open University) and Professor Francesca Orsini (SOAS)
Producer: Melissa FitzGerald
A Blakeway production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:00 News Summary (b08m8z30)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 Home Front (b08lhrms)
20 April 1917 - Noah Hamilton
On this day in 1917, a special American service was held at St Paul's Cathedral to mark the US entry into the war, and in Folkestone, the new vicar's son, Noah Hamilton, pursues small acts of resistance.
Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
THU 12:15 You and Yours (b08m8z32)
Consumer affairs programme.
THU 12:57 Weather (b08m8z34)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 13:00 World at One (b08m8z36)
Analysis of news and current affairs.
THU 13:45 The Ideas That Make Us (b08md6w9)
Series 5, Gaia
How do we feel today about the ancient goddess Gaia? Bettany Hughes visits a giant female earthwork, a modern sky garden and a 98 year old philosopher to assess the relationship.
With Matt Fitch Wildlife Trust manager of the Northumberlandia land sculpture, Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy Angie Hobbs, moral philosopher Mary Midgely and politician, author and environmental campaigner Stanley Johnson.
Producer: Dixi Stewart.
THU 14:00 The Archers (b08mbjqk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (b08md98k)
The Book of Yehudit
The Book of Yehudit
Yehudit, a young Orthodox Jewish woman, is desperate for a divorce. But in the Jewish world, a divorce can only be granted if the husband is willing to give his wife a get, and Yehudit's husband has other ideas.
Written by Adam Usden
Directed by Charlotte Riches.
THU 15:00 Open Country (b08md98n)
Stonehenge and Mental Health
Helen Mark asks whether time creatively spent in Stonehenge's prehistoric landscapes can help Wiltshire residents with long term mental health problems. It's called the Human Henge project, and for one day a week for ten weeks the participants have been given the opportunity to get an insight into the lives of ancestors lived long ago. Helen accompanies the group on the final day when they're able to enter the inner circle of Stonehenge, the culmination of their work together.
Helen hears how the idea for the project began with the Restoration Trust, a charity that links heritage sites with mental health in what it describes as 'culture therapy'. English Heritage who operate Stonehenge have supported the project, as has a leading expert on Stonehenge, the archaeologist Professor Tim Darvill of Bournemouth University. Tim argues that the site may well have had a healing function in the past as a focus for rituals and ceremonies, and is glad to explore that aspect of it today.
The participants themselves describe how they've benefitted from being out of doors, from getting to know each other and having a focus besides indoor drop-in support groups. More than one participant says what's helped her is being treated as someone with a brain, glad to learn something new about her locality and its ancient past.
Producer: Mark Smalley.
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b08m93md)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (b08m98qn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b08md98t)
Women in World War II
Their Finest producer Stephen Woolley takes us through the history of women in World War II pictures, on the eve of a season he's curated at the British Film Institute.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b08m8z38)
Adam Rutherford explores the science that is changing our world.
THU 17:00 PM (b08m8z3b)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b08m8z3d)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Reluctant Persuaders (b08md98w)
Series 2, Give a Man a Fish
Starring Nigel Havers, Mathew Baynton and Josie Lawrence. Welcome back to Hardacre's, the worst advertising agency in London, for the second series of Edward Rowett's award-winning sitcom.
This week, the team are on the lookout for a charity prepared to accept their work.
While Joe (Mathew Baynton) is determined to do some good in the world, Amanda (Josie Lawrence) and Hardacre (Nigel Havers) are more interested in winning prestige and awards with a buzzy new charity campaign.
As Joe and Teddy (Kieran Hodgson) head out into the streets and soup kitchens of London, looking for the ground level stories that make a good campaign, Amanda and Hardacre spend an evening at a fundraiser organised by Hardacre's old brother in arms Bill Lessing (guest star Mark Evans). But where's he been for the last ten years? And what exactly does his charity do?
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 19:00 The Archers (b08mdbjj)
Everyone is celebrating at The Bull, and Rex fails to impress.
THU 19:15 Front Row (b08m8z3g)
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b08md6hb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (b08md98z)
Series looking at important issues in the news. Presented by David Aaronovitch.
THU 20:30 In Business (b08md991)
From Ex-Offender to Entrepreneur
The number of women in prison globally is rapidly increasing. The Institute for Criminal Policy Research has calculated that between 2000 and 2015, the female prison population around the world grew by 50%, compared with an 18% rise in male prisoners over the same period. Re-offending rates are high, and overcoming the stigma of a prison sentence makes finding a job extremely tough. But can entrepreneurship break the cycle ? Caroline Bayley speaks to six former women prisoners across three continents. They were convicted under different circumstances and of different crimes - but they're united in their passion for business, enterprise and self-employment which has allowed them to turn their lives around on the outside.
Producer: Alex Burton.
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b08m8z38)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (b08m8z2w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 21:58 Weather (b08m8z3j)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b08m8z3l)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b08n1kqg)
Rabbit, Run, Episode 4
The post-war novel that summed up middle-class white America and established John Updike as the major American author of his generation. Rabbit, Run is the first in a virtuoso Pullitzer Prize-wining quintet featuring hapless Harry Angstrom, whom we meet as a 26 year old former high school basketball star and suburban paragon in the midst of a personal crisis.
Episode 4 (of 10):
Rabbit returns home to get his things and is waylaid by Jack Eccles, a young Episcopalian minister on a mission to understand and reform him - or at least get a game of golf.
Rabbit, Run established Updike as one of the major American novelists of his generation. In the New York Times he was praised for his "artful and supple" style in his "tender and discerning study of the desperate and the hungering in our midst's".
Radio 4 plans to broadcast all five novels in the series over the next few years.
Read by Toby Jones
Abridged by Eileen Horne
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 23:00 Start/Stop (b04stvxw)
Series 2, David's Villa
Hit comedy about three marriages in various states of disrepair. Starring Jack Docherty, Kerry Godliman, John Thomson, Fiona Allen, Charlie Higson and Sally Bretton.
This week the three couples are invited to David's villa in Italy. Barney and Evan go out early to help David with some renovations. Meanwhile Fiona tries to help Cathy to get bikini-ready. Alice, of course, is already bikini-ready...which Barney is looking forward to confirming.
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (b08md995)
Sean Curran reports from Westminster.
FRIDAY 21 APRIL 2017
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b08m8z5c)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
FRI 00:30 The Odyssey Project: My Name Is Nobody (b08mq7g1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b08m8z5f)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b08m8z5h)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b08m8z5k)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b08m8z5m)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b08p1y1k)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with His Grace Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b08m8z5p)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b01s6y1h)
Cuckoo - Male
David Attenborough narrates the first in a new series of short stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs, beginning with the Cuckoo. After spending winter in Africa, the migratory urge propels the Cuckoos northwards. And for many of us their return is a welcome sign that spring is well and truly here.
FRI 06:00 Today (b08md9k3)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 The Reunion (b08m98q2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 The Odyssey Project: My Name Is Nobody (b08mqv1n)
Series 1, Night Shift
In The Odyssey there is a moving episode in which Odysseus goes into the Underworld to meet the shades of dead luminaries. He also sees his mother, and realises she has died since he left home. He tries repeatedly to embrace her, but as she is a spirit, cannot.
In McCarthy Woolf's poem, written throughout in rhyming couplets, the story takes place in a portacabin in a port, and in a minicab. Here the mother, Cleo, who died soon after giving birth to her son, Valentine, is trying to make contact with him. Valentine is a cabbie on a night shift, and his controller on the radio has godlike power. But there is strange interference, on the radio and even his passenger's mobile phone.
Karen McCarthy Woolf is Cleo; Samuel James is Angel and Valentine and Maeve Bluebell Wells plays the Passenger.
Producer: Julian May.
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b08m8z5t)
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b08md9xc)
The Amateur Marriage, 2001, An Extra Marriage
By Anne Tyler dramatised by Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Episode ten - 2001, An Extra Marriage
Michael returns to his old neighbourhood and old loves.
Director: David Hunter.
FRI 11:00 Copyright or Wrong (b08md9xf)
Leading copyright lawyer and author Richard Taylor asks whether copyright is an analogue law in the digital age.
Everywhere we look, there are examples of copyright - from the music playing in stores to the images on billboards and the trainers we wear. And that is just in the real world. On the internet, users downloading music or posting images can infringe copyright on a daily basis without ever being aware.
Richard Taylor examines the problems with copyright law, revealing the cracks in the current system which can stifle artistic creation, manipulate our view of history and even put hurdles in the way of scientific development. He acknowledges the importance of copyright in recognising and rewarding authorship but questions at what point it becomes more about financial greed and control, with increasing ownership in the hands of big music labels, film companies and publishers.
US judge Alex Kozinski says, "Overprotecting intellectual property is as harmful as under protecting it. Nothing since we tamed fire is genuinely new, culture like technology, grows by accretion, each new creator building on the works of those who came before."
Rows over copyright are not new. In 1842, Charles Dickens, at the height of his fame, embarked on a lengthy tour of America, not to promote his books but to stop US publishers ripping him off. Dickens failed - and took his revenge in the American passages in Martin Chuzzlewit.
Dickens would be delighted at the growing enforcement of copyright law. In the early 1970s Terry Gilliam borrowed hundreds of images and paintings for his famous Monty Python animations, yet in 1995 he discovered times had changed when making the film 12 Monkeys. A court stopped distribution of the film, concluding that Gilliam had based a set design on a copyrighted drawing. Gilliam also had to pay for a background appearance of Andy Warhol's Xerox of Da Vinci's Last Supper.
In today's digital age, ownership is more complicated and subject to different legislation in different countries. In France for example a photograph of the Eiffel tower lit up at night would infringe the copyright of the light show creators, even though a photo taken during the day is permissible because the architect has long since died.
More obvious are copyright infringements in music, art and written works. A recent US case sent shock waves through the music industry when a jury concluded parts of Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke were copied from Marvin Gaye's 1977 hit Got to Give It Up and ordered $7.4m be paid to Gaye's children. Forensic musicologist Peter Oxendale testified in the case and is on record as condemning the judgement as mad. The uncertainty around music copyright judgements has led to a mushrooming of his case load. He now gets hundreds of enquiries from music labels and singer song writers wanting him to check for possible copyright infringement before tracks are released.
The film industry also spends millions to pick their way through the copyright minefield. In the recent film Selma however the King Estate refused permission to use the speeches of Martin Luther King. The film's director was therefore forced to re-write his words.
In the programme, Richard interviews copyright experts, hunts down representative cases and talks to campaigners like Julia Reda MEP who wants better copyright laws and clarity.
Presenter: Richard Taylor
Producer: Sara Parker
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 11:30 Gloomsbury (b08md9xh)
Series 4, Honestly, Darling
Henry and Vera are staying the night at Ginny and Lionel's because they are doing a broadcast on the BBC about the need for honesty in a modern marriage. Henry hopes the role of marriage guru will help to repair Vera's reputation as a Sapphic seducer and might show Mr and Mrs Gosling the way to a happier future.
The Goslings have effected a reconciliation of sorts after Mr Gosling tells Mrs Gosling about a dream he's had in which Jesus told him that Mrs Gosling should forgive his dalliances. And to quash Mrs Gosling's doubts and prove the authenticity of his visitation, he shows his wife the stigmata on the palms of his hands.
Meanwhile at the Fox's, Henry is sick not just with nerves but with the pickled herring that Lionel has fed him for breakfast. This results in Henry being sick in the middle of the broadcast - leaving Vera and Hilda alone by the microphone. But an open microphone reveals more than their scripted conversation ever could.
A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:00 News Summary (b08m8z5w)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Home Front (b08lhrzf)
21 April 1917 - Sylvia Graham
On this day in 1917, six German destroyers attacked two British patrol boats in the early hours of the morning, and Sylvia Graham's patriotism is invigorated.
Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.
FRI 12:15 You and Yours (b08m8z5y)
Consumer news and issues.
FRI 12:57 Weather (b08m8z60)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 13:00 World at One (b08m8z62)
Analysis of news and current affairs.
FRI 13:45 The Ideas That Make Us (b08md9xk)
Series 5, Chaos
Do we need chaos in order to progress? Bettany Hughes visits a campaigning teenage refugee from Syria, a theoretical physicist and the Palace of Westminster to discuss.
With Syrian migrant and human rights campaigner Muzoon Almellehan, classicist Paul Cartledge, Conservative MP for Spelthorne Kwasi Kwarteng and theoretical physicist and author of Seven Brief Lessons On Physics, Carlo Rovelli.
Producer: Dixi Stewart.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (b08mdbjj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (b05nt1vb)
Far Side of the Moore
Tom Hollander (Rev, Pirates of The Caribbean) stars as Patrick Moore, with Patricia Hodge as his mother Gertrude.
It's 1957 and the little known Patrick Moore is living with his mother in East Grinstead, from where he studies the heavens and writes popular factual works on astronomy, as well as science fiction under a pseudonym.
When Moore's latest book 'Suns, Myths and Men' gets a terrible review from the stuffy academic Dr Henry King, Patrick is in despair and, when the phone rings, he braces himself for more bad news.
Sean Grundy's drama is both a moving and at times laugh out loud funny telling of a key moment in the life of Patrick Moore.
This is the story of how the self taught astronomer, whose Moon maps were later used by the Apollo missions, became the presenter of The Sky At Night. But it's also the story of a mysterious love affair, and a window into the mind of one of the nation's favourite broadcasters.
Written by Sean Grundy
Director: Dirk Maggs
Producer: David Morley
A Perfectly Normal production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b08mdc3m)
The Savill Garden, Windsor Great Park - Correspondence Edition
Peter Gibbs and the panel answer listener correspondence from The Savill Garden, Windsor. Anne Swithinbank, Pippa Greenwood and Bunny Guinness delve into the postbag.
Produced by Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:45 Short Works (b08mdc9f)
Series 1, Tonight, for the First Time
A new story by Zoe Strachan, inspired by a piece of music.
Northern Soul and a crumbling modernist ruin come together in a story of missed chances and lasting love.
Written by Zoe Strachan
Read by Ann Louise Ross
Music: 'Long After Tonight Is All Over' performed by Jimmy Radcliffe
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (b08mdchy)
Obituary series, analysing and celebrating the life stories of people who have recently died.
FRI 16:30 More or Less (b08mdcj0)
Investigating the numbers in the news.
FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (b08mdjy5)
Erica and Lloyd - The Importance of Art
The balancing act of motivating their pupils while playing pranks on their fellow staff. Enter the art room at your peril... Introduced by Fi Glover. Another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
FRI 17:00 PM (b08m8z64)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b08m8z66)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (b08mdjyb)
Series 93, 21/04/2017
Jeremy Hardy, Andy Hamilton, Helen Lewis and Susan Calman are Miles' guests for the first episode in the series.
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (b08mdjyd)
Pip cannot apologise enough, and Lily takes charge.
FRI 19:15 Front Row (b08m8z68)
News, reviews and interviews from the worlds of art, literature, film and music.
FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b08md9xc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b08mdjyg)
Lord Ashdown, Ann Widdecombe
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion from Truro High School in Cornwall with a panel including the liberal democrat peer Lord Ashdown and Ann Widdecombe.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b08mdjyj)
A reflection on a topical issue.
FRI 21:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b08lhrzh)
17-21 April 1917
The first omnibus of Season 10, Our Daily Bread, set in Folkestone, in the week, in 1917, when the Chinese Labour Corps set up camp in Folkestone.
Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole
Story-led by Sarah Daniels
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Composer: Matthew Strachan
Consultant Historian: Maggie Andrews.
FRI 21:58 Weather (b08m8z6g)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b08m8z6j)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b08n1ksg)
Rabbit, Run, Episode 5
The post-war novel that summed up middle-class white America and established John Updike as the major American author of his generation. Rabbit, Run is the first in a virtuoso Pullitzer Prize-wining quintet featuring hapless Harry Angstrom, whom we meet as a 26 year old former high school basketball star and suburban paragon in the midst of a personal crisis.
Episode 5 (of 10):
Ruth's been losing weight to please Harry, but somehow she's gaining again. Rabbit revels in a lack of consequences for his behaviour, and insists that Ruth prove her love to him.
Rabbit, Run established Updike as one of the major American novelists of his generation. In the New York Times he was praised for his "artful and supple" style in his "tender and discerning study of the desperate and the hungering in our midst's".
Radio 4 plans to broadcast all five novels in the series over the next few years.
Read by Toby Jones
Abridged by Eileen Horne
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 23:00 Great Lives (b08mb1g4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (b08mdjyl)
Mark D'Arcy reports from Westminster.
FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (b08mdjyn)
Brenda and Joan - The Retired PE Teachers' Home
Grandchildren can keep you busy in retirement. Or you can go and live with former colleagues among the discarded vaulting horses and whistles. Introduced by Fi Glover. Another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.